lie 


By  Lady  Gregory 


DRAMA 

Seven  Short  Plays 
Folk-History  Plays,  2  vols. 
New  Comedies 
The  Image 
The  Golden  Apple 

Our  Irish  Theatre.       A  Chapter  of  Auto- 
biography 


IRISH  FOLK  LORE  AND  LEGEND 

Visions  and  Beliefs,  2  vols. 
Cuchulain  of  Muirthemne 
Gods  and  Fighting  Men 
Saints  and  Wonders 
Poets  and  Dreamers 
The  Kiltartan  Poetry  Book 


VISIONS  AND  BELIEFS  IN 
THE  WEST  OF  IRELAND 
COLLECTED  AND  ARRANGED  BY 
LADY  GREGORY:  WITH  TWO  ES- 
SAYS AND  NOTES  BY  W.  B.  YEATS 


'  There's  no  doubt  at  all  but  that  there's  the  same 
sort  of  things  in  other  countries  ;  but  you  hear 
more  about  them  in  these  parts  because  the  Irish 
do  be  more  familiar  in  talking  of  them." 


FIRST  SERIES 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
Gbe  "Knickerbocker  press 

1920 


Copyright,  1920 

BY 

LADY  GREGORY 


Ubc  fmfcfcerbocfcer  press,  Hew  IBorft 


PREFACE 

THE  Sidhe  cannot  make  themselves  visible  to 
all.  They  are  shape-changers ;  they  can  grow 
small  or  grow  large,  they  can  take  what  shape  they 
choose;  they  appear  as  men  or  women  wearing 
clothes  of  many  colours,  of  today  or  of  some  old 
forgotten  fashion,  or  they  are  seen  as  bird  or  beast, 
or  as  a  barrel  or  a  flock  of  wool.  They  go  by  us  in  a 
cloud  of  dust;  they  are  as  many  as  the  blades  of 
grass.  They  are  everywhere;  their  home  is  in  the 
forths,  the  lisses,  the  ancient  round  grass-grown 
mounds.  There  are  thorn-bushes  they  gather  near 
and  protect;  if  they  have  a  mind  for  a  house  like 
our  own  they  will  build  it  up  in  a  moment.  They 
will  remake  a  stone  castle,  battered  by  Cromwell's 
men,  if  it  takes  their  fancy,  filling  it  with  noise  and 
lights.  Their  own;  country  is  Tir-nan-Og — the 
Country  of  the  Young.  It  is  under  the  ground  or 
under  the  sea,  or  it  may  not  be  far  from  any  of  us. 
As  to  their  food,  they  will  use  common  things  left 
for  them  on  the  hearth  or  outside  the  threshold, 
cold  potatoes  it  may  be,  or  a  cup  of  water  or  of 
milk.  But  for  their  feasts  they  choose  the  best  of 
all  sorts,  taking  it  from  the  solid  world,  leaving 
some  worthless  likeness  in  its  place;  when  they 


iv  Preface 

rob  the  potatoes  from  the  ridges  the  diggers  find 
but  rottenness  and  decay ;  they  take  the  strength 
from  the  meat  in  the  pot,  so  that  when  put  on  the 
plates  it  does  not  nourish.  They  will  not  touch 
salt;  there  is  danger  to  them  in  it.  They  will  go 
to  good  cellars  to  bring  away  the  wine. 

Fighting  is  heard  among  them,  and  music  that 
is  more  beautiful  than  any  of  this  world;  they  are 
seen  dancing  on  the  rocks;  they  are  often  seen 
playing  at  the  hurling,  hitting  balls  towards  the 
goal.  In  each  one  of  their  households  there  is  a 
queen,  and  she  has  more  power  than  the  rest ;  but 
the  greatest  power  belongs  to  their  fool,  the  Fool 
of  the  Forth,  Amadan-na-Briona.  He  is  their 
strongest,  the  most  wicked,  the  most  deadly; 
there  is  no  cure  for  any  one  he  has  struck. 

When  they  are  friendly  to  a  man  they  give  him 
help  in  his  work,  putting  their  strength  into  his 
body.  Or  they  may  tell  him  where  to  find  treasure, 
hidden  gold ;  or  through  certain  wise  men  or  women 
who  have  learned  from  them  or  can  ask  and  get 
their  knowledge  they  will  tell  where  cattle  that 
have  strayed  may  be  found,  or  they  will  cure  the 
sick  or  tell  if  a  sickness  is  not  to  be  cured.  They 
will  sometimes  work  as  if  against  their  own  will  or 
intention,  giving  back  to  the  life  of  our  world  one 
who  had  received  the  call  to  go  over  to  their  own. 
They  call  many  there,  summoning  them  perhaps 
through  the  eye  of  a  neighbour,  the  evil  eye,  or  by 
a  touch,  a  blow,  a  fall,  a  sudden  terror.  Those  who 
have  received  their  touch  waste  away  from  this 


Preface  v 

world,  lending  their  strength  to  the  invisible  ones; 
for  the  strength  of  a  human  body  is  needed  by  the 
shadows,  it  may  be  in  their  fighting,  and  certainly 
in  their  hurling  to  win  the  goal.  Young  men  are 
taken  for  this,  young  mothers  are  taken  that  they 
may  give  the  breast  to  newly  born  children  among 
the  Sidhe,  young  girls  that  they  may  themselves 
become  mothers  there. 

While  these  are  away  a  body  in  their  likeness, 
or  the  likeness  of  a  body,  is  left  lying  in  their  place. 
They  may  be  given  leave  to  return  to  their  village 
after  a  while,  seven  years  it  may  be,  or  twice  or 
three  times  seven.  But  some  are  sent  back  only 
at  the  end  of  the  years  allotted  them  at  the  time 
of  their  birth,  old  spent  men  and  women,  thought 
to  have  been  dead  a  long  time,  given  back  to  die 
and  be  buried  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

There  are  two  races  among  the  Sidhe.  One  is 
tall  and  handsome,  gay,  and  given  to  jesting  and 
to  playing  pranks,  leading  us  astray  in  the  fields, 
giving  gold  that  turns  to  withered  leaves  or  to  dust. 
These  ride  on  horses  through  the  night-time  in 
large  companies  and  troops,  or  ride  in  coaches, 
laughing  and  decked  with  flowers  and  fine  clothes. 
The  people  of  the  other  race  are  small,  malicious, 
wide-bellied,  carrying  before  them  a  bag.  When  a 
man  or  woman  is  about  to  die,  a  woman  of  the 
Sidhe  will  sometimes  cry  for  a  warning,  keening 
and  making  lamentation.  At  the  hour  of  death 
fighting  may  be  heard  in  the  air  or  about  the  house 
— that  is,  when  the  man  in  danger  has  friends 


VI 


Preface 


among  the  shadows,  who  are  fighting  on  his 
behalf. 

The  dead  are  often  seen  among  them,  and  will 
give  help  in  danger  to  comrade  or  brother  or  friend. 
Sometimes  they  have  a  penance  to  work  out,  and 
will  come  and  ask  the  living  for  help,  for  prayers, 
for  the  payment  of  a  debt.  They  may  wander  in 
some  strange  shape,  or  be  bound  in  the  one  place, 
or  go  through  the  air  as  birds.  When  the  Sidhe 
pass  by  in  a  blast  of  wind  we  should  say  some  words 
of  blessing,  for  there  may  be  among  them  some  of 
our  own  dead.  The  dead  are  of  the  nature  of  the 
Saints,  mortals  who  have  put  on  immortality,  who 
have  known  the  troubles  of  the  world.  The  Sidhe 
have  been,  like  the  Angels,  from  before  the  making 
of  the  earth.  In  the  old  times  in  Ireland  they  were 
called  gods  or  the  children  of  gods;  now  it  is  laid 
down  they  are  those  Angels  who  were  cast  out  of 
heaven,  being  proud. 

This  is  the  news  I  have  been  given  of  the  people 
of  the  Sidhe  by  many  who  have  seen  them  and 
some  who  have  known  their  power. 

A.G. 

Coole,  February,  1916. 


I.- 

— Sea-Stories 

PAGE 

3 

II.- 

—Seers  and  Healers  .... 

35 

Biddy  Early          .... 

35 

Mrs.  Sheridan      .... 

70 

Mr.  Saggarton     .... 

92 

"A  Great  Warrior  in  the  Busi- 
ness "..... 

103 

Old  Deruane         .... 

112 

III.- 

—The    Evil    Eye  —  the    Touch —the 
Penalty                .... 

127 

IV.- 

—Away        ...... 

169 

Witches  and  Wizards  and  Irish  Folk- 
lore   ...... 

247 

Notes 

265 

Vll 


I 

SEA-STORIES 


SEA-STORIES 

11  'T'HE  Celtic  Twilight"  was  the  first  book  of  Mr. 

•  Yeats' s  that  I  read,  and  even  before  I  met  him, 
a  little  time  later,  I  had  begun  looking  for  news  of  the 
invisible  world;  for  his  stories  were  of  Sligo  and  I  felt 
jealous  for  Galway.  This  beginning  of  knowledge 
was  a  great  excitement  to  me,  for  though  I  had  heard 
all  my  life  some  talk  of  the  faeries  and  the  banshee 
(having  indeed  reason  to  believe  in  this  last),  I  had 
never  thought  of  giving  heed  to  what  I,  in  common  with 
my  class,  looked  on  as  fancy  or  superstition.  It  was 
certainly  because  of  this  unbelief  that  I  had  been  told 
so  little  about  them.  Even  when  I  began  to  gather 
these  stories,  I  cared  less  for  the  evidence  given  in 
them  than  for  the  beautiful  rhythmic  sentences  in  which 
they  were  told.  I  had  no  theories,  no  case  to  prove, 
I  but  "held  tip  a  clean  mirror  to  tradition.*1 

It  is  hard  to  tell  sometimes  what  has  been  a  real 
vision  and  what  is  tradition,  a  legend  hanging  in  the 
air,  a  "vanity"  as  our  people  call  it,  made  use  of  by 
a  story-teller  here  and  there,  or  impressing  itself  as 
a  real  experience  on  some  sensitive  and  imaginative 
mind.     For  tradition  has  a  large  place  in  "the  Book 

3 


4  Visions  and  Beliefs 

of  the  People"  showing  a  sowing  and  re- sowing,  a 
continuity  and  rebirth  as  in  nature.  "Those" 
"The  Others,"  "The  Fallen  Angels"  have  some  of 
the  attributes  of  the  gods  of  ancient  Ireland;  we  may 
even  go  back  yet  farther  to  the  early  days  of  the  world 
when  the  Sons  of  God  mated  with  the  Daughters  of 
Men.  I  believe  that  if  Christianity  could  be  blotted 
out  and  forgotten  tomorrow,  our  people  would  not 
be  moved  at  all  from  the  belief  in  a  spiritual  world 
and  an  unending  life;  it  has  been  with  them  since 
the  Druids  taught  what  Lucan  called  "the  happy 
error  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul."  I  think  we 
found  nothing  so  trivial  in  our  search  but  it  may  have 
been  worth  the  lifting;  a  clue,  a  thread,  leading  through 
the  maze  to  that  mountain  top  where  things  visible 
and  invisible  meet. 

To  gather  folk-lore  one  needs,  I  think,  leisure, 
patience,  reverence,  and  a  good  memory.  I  tried  not 
to  change  or  alter  anything,  but  to  write  down  the 
very  words  in  which  the  story  had  been  told.  Some- 
times Mr.  Yeats  was  with  me  at  the  telling;  or  I  would 
take  him  to  hear  for  himself  something  I  had  been 
told,  that  he  might  be  sure  I  had  missed  or  added 
nothing.  I  filled  many  copybooks,  and  came  to  have 
a  very  faithful  memory  for  all  sides  of  folk-lore, 
stories  of  saints,  of  heroes,  of  giants  and  enchanters, 
as  well  as  for  these  visions.  For  this  I  have  had  to 
11  pay  the  penalty"  by  losing  in  some  measure  that 
useful  and  practical  side  of  memory  that  is  concerned 
with  names  and  dates  and  the  multiplication  table, 
and  the  numbers  on  friends'  houses  in  a  street. 


Sea-Stories  5 

It  was  on  the  coast  I  began  to  gather  these  stories, 
and  I  went  after  a  while  to  the  islands  Inishmor, 
Inishmaan,  Inisheerf  and  so  I  give  the  sea-stories 
first. 


/  was  told  by: 

A  Man  on  the  Height  near  Dun  Conor: 

It's  said  there's  everything  in  the  sea  the  same 
as  on  the  land,  and  we  know  there's  horses  in  it. 
This  boy  here  saw  a  horse  one  time  out  in  the  sea, 
a  grey  one,  swimming  about.  And  there  were 
three  men  from  the  north  island  caught  a  horse 
in  their  nets  one  night  when  they  were  fishing  for 
mackerel,  but  they  let  it  go;  it  would  have  broke 
the  boat  to  bits  if  they  had  brought  it  in,  and  any- 
how they  thought  it  was  best  to  leave  it.  One 
year  at  Kinvara,  the  people  were  missing  their  oats 
that  was  eaten  in  the  fields,  and  they  watched  one 
night  and  it  was  five  or  six  of  the  sea-horses  they 
saw  eating  the  oats,  but  they  could  not  take  them, 
they  made  off  to  the  sea. 

And  there  was  a  man  on  the  north  island  fishing 
on  the  rocks  one  time,  and  a  mermaid  came  up 
before  him,  and  was  partly  like  a  fish  and  the  rest 
like  a  woman.  But  he  called  to  her  in  the  name 
of  God  to  be  off,  and  she  went  and  left  him. 

There  was  a  boy  was  sent  over  here  one  morning 
early  by  a  friend  of  mine  on  the  other  side  of  the 
island,  to  bring  over  some  cattle  that  were  in  a 

7 


8  Visions  and  Beliefs 

field  he  had  here,  and  it  was  before  daylight,  and 
he  came  to  the  door  crying,  and  said  he  heard 
thirty  horses  or  more  galloping  over  the  roads 
there,  where  you'd  think  no  horse  could  go. 

Surely  those  things  are  on  the  sea  as  well  as  on 
the  land.  My  father  was  out  fishing  one  night 
off  Tyrone  and  something  came  beside  the  boat, 
that  had  eyes  shining  like  candles.  And  then  a 
wave  came  in,  and  a  storm  rose  of  a  moment,  and 
whatever  was  in  the  wave,  the  weight  of  it  had  like 
to  sink  the  boat.  And  then  they  saw  that  it  was 
a  woman  in  the  sea  that  had  the  shining  eyes. 
So  my  father  went  to  the  priest,  and  he  bid  him 
always  to  take  a  drop  of  holy  water  and  a  pinch 
of  salt  out  in  the  boat  with  him,  and  nothing  would 
harm  him. 

A  Galway  Bay  Lobster-Seller : 

They  are  on  the  sea  as  well  as  on  the  land,  and 
their  boats  are  often  to  be  seen  on  the  bay,  sailing 
boats  and  others.  They  look  like  our  own,  but 
when  you  come  near  them  they  are  gone  in  an 
instant.     {Note  i.) 

My  mother  one  time  thought  she  saw  our  own 
boat  come  in  to  the  pier  with  my  father  and  two 
other  men  in  it,  and  she  got  the  supper  ready,  but 
when  she  went  down  to  the  pier  and  called  them 
there  was  nothing  there,  and  the  boat  didn't  come 
in  till  two  hours  after. 

There  were  three  or  four  men  went  out  one  day 
to  fish,  and  it  was  a  dead  calm;  but  all  of  a  sudden 


Sea-Stories  9 

they  heard  a  blast  and  they  looked,  and  within 
about  three  mile  of  the  boat  they  saw  twelve  men 
from  the  waist,  the  rest  of  them  was  under  water. 
And  they  had  sticks  in  their  hands  and  were  strik- 
ing one  another.  And  where  they  were,  and  the 
blast,  it  was  rough,  but  smooth  and  calm  on  each 
side. 

There's  a  sort  of  a  light  on  the  sea  sometimes ; 
some  call  it  a  "Jack  O' Lantern"  and  some  say 
it  is  sent  by  them  to  mislead  them.     {Note  2.) 

There's  many  of  them  out  in  the  sea,  and  often 
they  pull  the  boats  down.  {Note  3.)  It's  about 
two  years  since  four  fishermen  went  out  from  Aran, 
two  fathers  and  two  sons,  where  they  saw  a  big 
ship  coming  in  and  flying  the  flag  for  a  pilot,  and 
they  thought  she  wanted  to  be  brought  in  to 
Gal  way.  And  when  they  got  near  the  ship,  it 
faded  away  to  nothing  and  the  boat  turned  over 
and  they  were  all  four  drowned. 

There  were  two  brothers  of  my  own  went  to 
fish  for  the  herrings,  and  what  they  brought  up 
was  like  the  print  of  a  cat,  and  it  turned  with  the 
inside  of  the  skin  outside,  and  no  hair.  So  they 
pulled  up  the  nets,  and  fished  no  more  that  day. 
There  was  one  of  them  lying  on  the  strand  here, 
and  some  of  the  men  of  the  village  came  down  of  a 
sudden  and  surprised  him.  And  when  he  saw  he 
was  taken  he  began  a  great  crying.  But  they 
only  lifted  him  down  to  the  sea  and  put  him  back 
into  it.  Just  like  a  man  they  said  he  was.  And 
a  little  way  out  there  was  another  just  like  him, 


io  Visions  and  Beliefs 

and  when  he  saw  that  they  treated  the  one  on 
shore  so  kindly,  he  bowed  his  head  as  if  to  thank 
them. 

Whatever's  on  the  land,  there's  the  same  in  the 
sea,  and  between  the  islands  of  Aran  they  can 
often  see  the  horses  galloping  about  at  the 
bottom.     {Note  4.) 

There  was  a  sort  of  a  big  eel  used  to  be  in  Tully 
churchyard,  used  to  come  and  to  root  up  the  bodies, 
but  I  didn't  hear  of  him  of  late — he  may  be  done 
away  with  now. 

There  was  one  Curran  told  me  one  night  he 
went  down  to  the  strand  where  he  used  to  be 
watching  for  timber  thrown  up  and  the  like.  And 
on  the  strand,  on  the  dry  sands,  he  saw  a  boat,  a 
grand  one  with  sails  spread  and  all,  and  it  up  far- 
ther than  any  tide  had  ever  reached.  And  he 
saw  a  great  many  people  round  about  it,  and  it 
was  all  lighted  up  with  lights.  And  he  got  afraid 
and  went  away.  And  four  hours  after,  after  sun- 
rise, he  went  there  again  to  look  at  it,  and  there 
was  no  sign  of  it,  or  of  any  fire,  or  of  any  other 
thing.  The  Mara-warra  (mermaid)  was  seen  on 
the  shore  not  long  ago,  combing  out  her  hair.  She 
had  no  fish's  tail,  but  was  like  another  woman. 

John  Corley: 

There  is  no  luck  if  you  meet  a  mermaid  and  you 
out  at  sea,  but  storms  will  come,  or  some  ill  will 
happen. 

There  was  a  ship  on  the  way  to  America,  and  a 


Sea-Stories  1 1 

mermaid  was  seen  following  it,  and  the  bad  weather 
began  to  come.  And  the  captain  said,  "It  must 
be  some  man  in  the  ship  she's  following,  and  if  we 
knew  which  one  it  was,  we'd  put  him  out  to  her 
and  save  ourselves. "  So  they  drew  lots,  and  the 
lot  fell  on  one  man,  and  then  the  captain  was 
sorry  for  him,  and  said  he'd  give  him  a  chance  till 
tomorrow.  And  the  next  day  she  was  following 
them  still,  and  they  drew  lots  again,  and  the  lot 
fell  on  the  same  man.  But  the  captain  said  he'd 
give  him  a  third  chance,  but  the  third  day  the  lot 
fell  on  him  again.  And  when  they  were  going  to 
throw  him  out  he  said,  "  Let  me  alone  for  a  while. " 
And  he  went  to  the  end  of  the  ship  and  he  began  to 
sing  a  song  in  Irish,  and  when  he  sang,  the  mermaid 
began  to  be  quiet  and  to  rock  like  as  if  she  was 
asleep.  So  he  went  on  singing  till  they  came  to 
America,  and  just  as  they  got  to  the  land  the  ship 
was  thrown  up  into  the  air,  and  came  down  on  the 
water  again.  There's  a  man  told  me  that  was  surely 
true. 

And  there  was  a  boy  saw  a  mermaid  down  by 
Spiddal  not  long  ago,  but  he  saw  her  before  she 
saw  him,  so  she  did  him  no  harm.  But  if  she'd 
seen  him  first,  she'd  have  brought  him  away  and 
drowned  him. 

Sometimes  a  light  will  come  on  the  sea  before  the 
boats  to  guide  them  to  the  land.  And  my  own 
brother  told  me  one  day  he  was  out  and  a  storm 
came  on  of  a  sudden,  and  the  sail  of  the  boat  was 
let  down  as  quick  and  as  well  as  if  two  men  were  in 


12  Visions  and  Beliefs 

it.  Some  neighbour  or  friend  it  must  have  been 
that  did  that  for  him.  Those  that  go  down  to  the 
sea  after  the  tide  going  out,  to  cut  the  weed,  often 
hear  under  the  sand  the  sound  of  the  milk  being 
churned.  There's  some  didn't  believe  that  till 
they  heard  it  themselves. 

A  Man  from  Roundstone: 

One  night  I  was  out  on  the  boat  with  another 
man,  and  we  saw  a  big  ship  near  us  with  about 
twenty  lights.  She  was  as  close  to  us  as  that  rock 
(about  thirty  yards),  but  we  saw  no  one  on  board. 
And  she  was  like  some  of  the  French  ships  that 
sometimes  come  to  Galway.  She  went  on  near  us 
for  a  while,  and  then  she  turned  towards  the  shore 
and  then  we  knew  that  she  was  not  a  right  ship. 
And  she  went  straight  on  to  the  land,  and  when 
she  touched  it,  the  lights  went  out  and  we  saw  her 
no  more. 

There  was  a  comrade  of  mine  was  out  one  night, 
and  a  ship  came  after  him,  with  lights,  and  she 
full  of  people.  And  as  they  drew  near  the  land, 
he  heard  them  shouting  at  him  and  he  got  afraid, 
and  he  went  down  and  got  a  coal  of  fire  and  threw 
it  at  the  ship,  and  in  a  minute  it  was  gone. 

A  Schoolmaster: 

A  boy  told  me  last  night  of  two  men  that  went 
with  poteen  to  the  Island  of  Aran.  And  when  they 
were  on  the  shore  they  saw  a  ship  coming  as  if  to 
land,  and  they  said,  "We'll  have  the  bottle  ready 


Sea-Stories  13 

for  those  that  are  coming."  But  when  the  ship 
came  close  to  the  land,  it  vanished.  And  presently 
they  got  their  boat  ready  and  put  out  to  sea.  And 
a  sudden  blast  came  and  swept  one  of  them  off. 
And  the  other  saw  him  come  up  again,  and  put  out 
the  oar  across  his  breast  for  him  to  take  hold  of  it. 
But  he  would  not  take  it  but  said,  "I'm  all  right 
again  now, "  and  sank  down  again  and  was  never 
seen  no  more. 

John  Nagle: 

For  one  there's  on  the  land  there's  ten  on  the  sea. 
When  I  lived  at  Ardfry  there  was  never  a  night 
but  there  was  a  voice  heard  crying  and  roaring, 
by  them  that  were  out  in  the  bay.  A  baker 
he  was  from  Loughrea,  used  to  give  short  weight 
and  measure,  and  so  he  was  put  there  for  a 
punishment. 

I  saw  a  ship  that  was  having  a  race  with  another 
go  suddenly  down  into  the  sea,  and  no  one  could 
tell  why.  And  afterwards  one  of  the  Government 
divers  was  sent  down  to  look  for  her,  and  he  told 
me  he'd  never  as  long  as  he'd  live  go  down  again, 
for  there  at  the  bottom  he  found  her,  and  the  cap- 
tain and  the  saloon  passengers,  and  all  sitting  at 
the  table  and  eating  their  dinner,  just  as  they  did 
before. 

A  Little  Girl: 

One  time  a  woman  followed  a  boat  from  Galway 
twenty  miles  out,  and  when  they  saw  that  she 


14  Visions  and  Beliefs 

was  some  bad  thing,  wanting  some  of  them,  they 
drowned  her. 

Mrs.  Casey: 

I  was  at  home  and  I  got  some  stories  from  a 
man  I  had  suspected  of  having  newses.  And  he 
told  me  that  when  he  was  a  youngster  he  was  at  a 
height  where  there  used  to  be  a  great  many  of 
them.  And  all  of  a  sudden  he  saw  them  fly  out  to 
where  a  boat  was  coming  from  Duras  with  sea- 
weed. And  they  went  in  two  flights,  and  so  fast 
that  they  swept  the  water  away  from  each  side 
the  boat,  and  it  was  left  on  the  sand,  and  this 
they  did  over  and  over,  just  to  be  humbugging 
the  man  in  the  boat,  and  he  was  kept  there  a  long 
time.  When  they  first  rose  up,  they  were  like 
clouds  of  dust,  but  with  all  sorts  of  colours,  and 
then  he  saw  their  faces  turned,  but  they  kept 
changing  colour  every  minute.  (Note  5.)  Laugh- 
ing and  humbugging  they  seemed  to  be. 

My  uncle  that  used  to  go  out  fishing  for  mackerel 
told  me  that  one  night  some  sort  of  a  monster  came 
under  the  boat  and  it  wasn't  a  fish,  and  it  had 
them  near  upset. 

At  an  evening  gathering  in  Inishmaan,  by  a  Son 
of  the  House: 

There  was  a  man  on  this  island  was  down  on  the 
beach  one  evening  with  his  dog,  and  some  black 
thing  came  up  out  of  the  sea,  and  the  dog  made  for 
it  and  began  to  fight  it.     And  the  man  began  to 


Sea-Stories  15 

run  home  and  he  called  the  dog,  and  it  followed 
him,  but  every  now  and  again  it  would  stop  and 
begin  to  fight  again.  And  when  he  got  to  the 
house  he  called  the  dog  in  and  shut  the  door,  and 
whatever  was  outside  began  hitting  against  the 
door  but  it  didn't  get  in.  But  the  dog  went  in 
under  the  bed  in  the  room,  and  before  morning 
it  was  dead. 

The  Man  of  the  House: 

A  horse  I've  seen  myself  on  the  sea  and  on  the 
rocks — a  brown  one,  just  like  another.  And  I 
threw  a  stone  at  it,  and  it  was  gone  in  a  minute. 
We  often  heard  there  was  fighting  amongst  these. 
And  one  morning  before  daybreak  I  went  down 
to  the  strand  with  some  others,  and  the  whole  of 
the  strand,  and  it  low  tide,  was  covered  with  blood. 

Colman  Kane: 

I  knew  a  woman  on  this  island  and  she  and  her 
daughter  went  down  to  the  strand  one  morning 
to  pick  weed,  and  a  wave  came  and  took  the 
daughter  away.  And  a  week  after  that,  the 
mother  saw  her  coming  to  the  house,  but  she 
didn't  speak  to  her. 

There  was  a  man  coming  from  Galway  here  and 
he  had  no  boatman.  And  on  the  way  he  saw  a 
man  that  was  behind  him  in  the  boat,  that  was 
putting  up  the  sail  and  taking  the  management  of 
everything,  and  he  spoke  no  word.  And  he  was 
with  him  all  the  way,  but  when  the  boat  came  to 


16  Visions  and  Beliefs 

land,  he  was  gone,  and  the  man  isn't  sure,  but  he 
thinks  it  was  his  brother. 

You  see  that  sand  below  on  the  south  side. 
When  the  men  are  out  with  the  mackerel  boats  at 
early  morning,  they  often  see  those  sands  covered 
with  boys  and  girls. 

There  were  some  men  out  fishing  in  the  bay  one 
time,  and  a  man  came  and  held  on  to  the  boat,  and 
wanted  them  to  make  room  for  him  to  get  in,  and 
after  a  time  he  left  them.  He  was  one  of  those. 
And  there  was  another  of  them  came  up  on  the 
rocks  one  day,  and  called  out  to  Martin  Flaherty 
that  was  going  out  and  asked  what  was  his  name. 

There* s  said  to  be  another  island  out  there  that's 
enchanted,  and  there  are  some  that  see  it.  And 
it's  said  that  a  fisherman  landed  on  it  one  time,  and 
he  saw  a  little  house,  and  he  went  in,  and  a  very 
nice-looking  young  woman  came  out  and  said, 
"What  will  you  say  to  me?"  and  he  said,  "You 
are  a  very  nice  lady."  And  a  second  came  and 
asked  him  the  same  thing  and  a  third,  and  he  made 
the  same  answer.  And  after  that  they  said,  "You'd 
best  run  for  your  life,"  and  so  he  did,  and  his 
curragh  was  floating  along  and  he  had  but  just 
time  to  get  into  it,  and  the  island  was  gone.  But 
if  he  had  said  "God  bless  you,"  the  island  would 
have  been  saved. 

A  Fisherman  on  Kilronan  Pier  : 
I  don't  give  in  to  these  things  myself ,  but  they'd 
make  you  believe  them   in  the  middle  island. 


Sea-Stories  17 

Mangan,  that  I  lodged  with  there,  told  rue  of  seeing 
a  ship  when  he  was  out  with  two  other  men,  that 
followed  them  and  vanished.  And  he  said  one  of 
the  men  took  to  his  bed  from  that  time  and  died. 
And  Doran  told  me  about  the  horse  he  saw,  that 
was  in  every  way  like  a  horse  you'd  see  on  land. 
And  a  man  on  the  south  island  told  me  how  he  saw 
a  calf  one  morning  on  the  strand,  and  he  thought 
it  belonged  to  a  neighbour,  and  was  going  to  drive 
it  up  to  his  field,  when  its  mother  appeared  on  the 
sea,  and  it  went  off  to  her. 

They  are  in  the  sea  as  well  as  on  the  land. 
That  is  well  known  by  those  that  are  out  fishing 
by  the  coast.  When  the  weather  is  calm,  they 
can  look  down  sometimes  and  see  cattle  and  pigs 
and  all  such  things  as  we  have  ourselves.  And  at 
nights  their  boats  come  out  and  they  can  be  seen 
fishing,  but  they  never  last  out  after  one  o'clock. 

The  cock  always  crows  on  the  first  of  March 
every  year  at  one  o'clock.  And  there  was  a  man 
brought  a  cock  out  with  him  in  his  boat  to  try 
them.  And  the  first  time  when  it  crowed  they  all 
vanished.     That  is  how  they  were  detected. 

There  are  more  of  them  in  the  sea  than  on  the 
land,  and  they  sometimes  try  to  come  over  the 
side  of  the  boat  in  the  form  of  fishes,  for  they  can 
take  their  choice  shape. 

Pat  O'Hagan: 

There  were  two  fine  young  women — red -haired 
women — died  in  my  village  about  six  months  ago. 


18  Visions  and  Beliefs 

And  I  believe  they're  living  yet.  And  there  are 
some  have  seen  them  appear.  All  I  ever  saw  my- 
self was  one  day  I  was  out  fishing  with  two  others, 
and  we  saw  a  canoe  coming  near  us,  and  we  were 
afraid  it  would  come  near  enough  to  take  away 
our  fish.  And  as  we  looked  it  turned  into  a  three- 
masted  ship,  and  people  in  it.  I  could  see  them 
well,  dark-coloured  and  dressed  like  sailors.  But 
it  went  away  and  did  us  no  harm. 

One  night  I  was  going  down  to  the  curragh, 
and  it  was  a  night  in  harvest,  and  the  stars  shining, 
and  I  saw  a  ship  fully  rigged  going  towards  the 
coast  of  Clare  where  no  ship  could  go.  And  when 
I  looked  again,  she  was  gone. 

And  one  morning  early,  I  and  other  men  that 
were  with  me,  and  one  of  them  a  friend  of  the  man 
here,  saw  a  ship  coming  to  the  island,  and  he 
thought  she  wanted  a  pilot,  and  put  out  in  the 
curragh.  But  when  we  got  to  where  she  was, 
there  was  no  sign  of  her,  but  where  she  was  the 
water  was  covered  with  black  gulls,  and  I  never 
saw  a  black  gull  before,  thousands  and  crowds  of 
them,  and  not  one  white  bird  among  them.  And 
one  of  the  boys  that  was  with  me  took  a  tarpin 
and  threw  it  at  one  of  the  gulls  and  hit  it  on  the 
head,  and  when  he  did,  the  curragh  went  down  to 
the  rowlocks  in  the  water — up  to  that — and  it's 
nothing  but  a  miracle  she  ever  came  up  again, 
but  we  got  back  to  land.  I  never  went  to  a  ship 
again,  for  the  people  said  it  was  on  account  of  me 
helping  in  the  Preventive  Service  it  happened,  and 


Sea-Stories  19 

that  if  I'd  hit  at  one  of  the  gulls  myself,  there  would 
have  been  a  bad  chance  for  us.  But  those  were 
no  right  gulls,  and  the  ship  was  no  living  ship. 

The  Old  Man  in  the  Kitchen: 

It's  in  the  middle  island  the  most  of  them  are,  and 
I'll  tell  you  a  thing  that  I  know  of  myself  that 
happened  not  long  ago.  There  was  a  young  girl, 
and  one  evening  she  was  missing,  and  they  made 
search  for  her  everywhere  and  they  thought  that 
she  was  drowned  or  that  she  had  gone  away  with 
some  man.  And  in  the  evening  of  the  next  day 
there  was  a  boy  out  in  a  curragh,  and  as  he  passed 
by  a  rock  that  is  out  in  the  sea  there  was  the  girl 
on  it,  and  he  brought  her  off.  And  surely  she  could 
not  go  there  by  herself.  I  suppose  she  wasn't 
able  to  give  much  account  of  it,  and  now  she's 
after  going  to  America.     {Note  6.) 

And  in  Aran  there  were  three  boys  and  their 
uncle  went  out  to  a  ship  they  saw  coming,  to  pilot 
her  into  the  bay.  But  when  they  got  to  where  she 
was,  there  was  no  ship,  and  a  sea  broke  over  the 
canoe,  and  they  were  drowned,  all  fine  strong  men. 
But  a  man  they  had  with  them  that  was  no  use  or 
of  no  account,  he  came  safe  to  land.  And  I  know 
a  man  in  this  island  saw  curraghs  and  curraghs 
full  of  people  about  the  island  of  a  Sunday  morning 
early,  but  I  never  saw  them  myself.  And  one 
Sunday  morning  in  my  time  there  were  scores  and 
scores  lying  their  length  by  the  sea  on  the  sand 
below,  and  they  saw  a  woman  in  the  sea,  up  to  her 


20  Visions  and  Beliefs 

waist,  and  she  racking  her  hair  and  settling  herself 
and  as  clean  and  as  nice  as  if  she  was  on  land. 
Scores  of  them  saw  that. 

There's  a  house  up  there  where  the  family  have 
to  leave  a  plate  of  potatoes  ready  every  night, 
and  all's  gone  in  the  morning.     {Note  7.) 

They  are  said  to  have  all  things  the  same  as 
ourselves  under  the  sea,  and  one  day  a  cow  was 
seen  swimming  as  if  for  the  headland,  but  before 
she  got  to  it  she  turned  another  way  and  went 
down.  And  one  time  I  got  a  small  muc-warra 
(porpoise)  and  I  went  to  cut  it  up  to  get  what  was 
good  of  it,  for  it  had  about  two  inches  of  fat,  and 
when  I  cut  it  open  the  heart  and  the  liver  and 
every  bit  of  it  were  for  all  the  world  like  a  pig 
you  would  cut  up  on  land. 

There's  a  house  in  the  village  close  by  this 
that's  haunted.  My  sister  was  sitting  near  it  one 
day,  and  it  empty  and  locked,  and  some  other  little 
girls,  and  they  heard  a  noise  in  it,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  flags  they  were  sitting  on  grew  red-hot, 
that  they  had  to  leave  them.  And  another  time 
the  woman  of  the  house  was  sick,  and  a  little  girl 
that  was  sitting  by  the  fire  in  the  kitchen  saw 
standing  in  the  door  the  sister  of  the  woman  that 
was  sick,  and  she  a  good  while  dead,  and  she  put 
up  her  arm,  as  if  to  tell  her  not  to  notice  her. 
And  the  poor  woman  of  that  house,  she  had  no  luck, 
nothing  but  miscarriages  or  dead  babies.  And  one 
child  lived  to  be  nine  months  old,  and  there  was 
less  flesh  on  it  at  the  end  of  the  nine  months  than 


Sea-Stories  21 

there  was  the  day  it  was  born.  She  has  a  little 
girl  now  that's  near  a  year  old,  but  her  arm 
isn't  the  size  of  that,  and  she's  crabbed  and  not 
like  a  child  as  she  should  be.  Many  a  one  that's 
long  married  without  having  a  child  goes  to  the 
fortune-teller  in  Galway,  and  those  that  think 
anything  of  themselves  go  to  Roundstone. 

A  Man  near  Loughmore: 

I  know  a  woman  was  washed  and  laid  out, 
and  it  went  so  far  that  two  half-penny  candles 
were  burned  over  her.  And  then  she  sat  up,  came 
back  again,  and  spoke-  to  her  husband,  ^nd  told 
him  how  to  divide  his  property,  and  to  manage 
the  children  well.  And  her  step-son  began  to 
question  her,  and  he  might  have  got  a  lot  out  of 
her  but  her  own  son  stopped  him  and  said  to  let 
her  alone.  And  then  she  turned  over  on  her  side 
and  died.  She  was  not  to  say  an  old  woman. 
It's  not  often  the  old  are  taken.  What  use  would 
there  be  for  them?  But  a  woman  to  be  taken 
young,  you  know  there's  demand  for  her.  It's 
the  people  in  the  middle  island  know  about  these 
things.  There  were  three  boys  from  there  lost  in 
a  curragh  at  the  point  near  the  lighthouse,  and 
for  long  after  their  friends  were  tormented  when 
they  came  there  fishing,  and  they  would  see  ships 
there  when  the  people  of  this  island  that  were  out 
at  the  same  time  couldn't  see  them.  There  were 
three  or  four  out  in  a  curragh  near  the  lighthouse, 
and  a  conger-eel  came  and  upset  it,  and  they  were 


22  Visions  and  Beliefs 

all  saved  but  one,  but  he  was  brought  down  and  for 
the  whole  day  they  could  hear  him  crying  and 
screeching  under  the  sea.  And  they  were  not  the 
only  ones,  but  a  fisherman  that  was  there  from 
Galway  had  to  go  away  and  leave  it,  because  of 
the  screeching. 

There  was  a  coast-guard's  wife  there  was  all  but 
gone,  but  she  was  saved  after.  And  there's  a  boy 
here  now  was  for  a  long  time  that  they'd  give  the 
world  he  was  gone  altogether,  with  the  state  he  was 
in,  and  now  he's  as  strong  as  any  boy  in  the  island ; 
and  if  ever  any  one  was  away  and  came  back 
again,  it  was  him.  Children  used  often  to  be 
taken,  but  there's  a  great  many  charms  in  use  in 
these  days  that  saves  them.  A  big  sewing-needle 
you'll  see  the  woman  looking  for  to  put  with  a 
baby,  and  as  long  as  that's  with  it,  it's  safe.  But 
anyway  they're  always  put  back  again  into  the 
world  before  they  die  in  the  place  of  some  young 
person.  And  even  a  beast  of  any  consequence  if 
anything  happens  to  it,  no  one  in  the  island  would 
taste  it;  there  might  be  something  in  it,  some  old 
woman  or  the  like. 

There  were  a  few  young  men  from  here  were  kept 
in  Galway  for  a  day,  and  they  went  to  a  woman 
there  that  works  the  cards.  And  she  told  them  of 
deaths  that  would  come  in  certain  families.  And  it 
wasn't  a  fortnight  after  that  five  boys  were  out 
there,  just  where  you  see  the  curragh  now,  and  they 
were  upset  and  every  one  drowned,  and  they  were 
of  the  families  that  she  had  named  on  the  cards. 


Sea-Stories  23 

My  uncle  told  me  that  one  night  they  were  all 
up  at  that  house  up  the  road,  making  a  match  for 
his  sister,  and  they  stopped  till  near  morning, 
and  when  they  went  out,  they  all  had  a  drop  taken. 
And  he  was  going  along  home  with  two  or  three 
others  and  one  of  them,  Michael  Flaherty,  said 
he  saw  people  on  the  shore.  And  another  of 
them  said  that  there  were  not,  andjny  uncle  said, 
"If  Flaherty  said  that  and  it  not  true,  we  have  a 
right  to  bite  the  ear  off  him,  and  it  would  be  no 
harm. "  And  then  they  parted,  and  my  uncle  had 
to  pass  by  the  beach,  and  then  he  saw  whole  com- 
panies of  people  coming  up  from  the  sea,  that  he 
didn't  know  how  he'd  get  through  them,  but  they 
opened  before  him  and  let  him  pass. 

There  were  men  going  to  Galway  with  cattle  one 
morning  from  the  beach  down  there,  and  they 
saw  a  man  up  to  his  middle  in  the  sea — all  of 
them  saw  it. 

There  was  a  man  was  down  early  for  lobsters  on 
the  shore  at  the  middle  island,  and  he  saw  a  horse 
up  to  its  middle  in  the  sea,  and  bowing  its  head 
down  as  if  to  drink.  And  after  he  had  watched  it 
awhile  it  disappeared. 

There  was  a  woman  walking  over  by  the  north 
shore — God  have  mercy  on  her — she's  dead  since — 
and  she  looked  out  and  saw  an  island  in  the  sea, 
and  she  was  a  long  time  looking  at  it.  It's  known 
to  be  there,  and  to  be  enchanted,  but  only  few  can 
see  it. 

There  was  a  man  had  his  horse  drawing  sea- 


24  Visions  and  Beliefs 

weed  up  there  on  the  rocks,  the  way  you  see  them 
drawing  it  every  day,  in  a  basket  on  the  mare's 
back.  And  on  this  day  every  time  he  put  the  load 
on,  the  mare  would  let  its  leg  slip  and  it  would  come 
down  again,  and  he  was  vexed  and  he  had  a  stick 
in  his  hand  and  he  gave  the  mare  a  heavy  blow. 
And  that  night  she  had  a  foal  that  was  dead,  not 
come  to  its  full  growth,  and  it  had  spots  over  it, 
and  every  spot  was  of  a  different  colour.  And 
there  was  no  sire  on  the  island  at  that  time,  so 
whatever  was  the  sire  must  have  come  up  from 
the  sea.     {Note  8.) 

A  Man  Watching  the  Weed- gatherers: 
There's  no  doubt  at  all  about  the  sea-horses. 
There  was  a  man  out  at  the  other  side  of  the  island, 
and  he  saw  one  standing  on  the  rocks  and  he  threw 
a  stone  at  it  and  it  went  off  in  the  sea.  He  said 
it  was  grand  to  see  it  swimming,  and  the  mane  and 
the  tail  floating  on  the  top  of  the  water. 

A  Woman  from  the  Connemara  Side: 
I  was  told  there  was  a  mare  that  had  a  foal, 
and  it  had  never  had  a  horse.  And  one  day  the 
mare  and  foal  were  down  by  the  sea,  and  a  horse 
put  up  its  head  and  neighed,  and  away  went  the 
foal  to  it  and  came  back  no  more. 

And  there  was  a  man  on  this  island  watched  his 
field  one  night  where  he  thought  the  neighbours' 
cattle  were  eating  his  grass,  and  what  he  saw  was 


Sea-Stories  25 

horses  and  foals  coming  up  from  the  sea.  And  he 
caught  a  foal  and  kept  it,  and  set  it  racing,  and  no 
horse  or  no  pony  could  ever  come  near  it,  till  one 
day  the  race  was  on  the  strand,  and  away  with 
it  into  the  sea,  and  the  jockey  along  with  it, 
and  they  never  were  seen  again. 

Mrs.  O'Dea  and  Mrs.  Daly: 

There  was  a  cow  seen  come  up  out  of  the  sea 
one  day  and  it  walked  across  the  strand,  and  its 
udder  like  as  if  it  had  been  lately  milked.  And 
Tommy  Donohue  was  running  up  to  tell  his  father 
to  come  down  and  see  it,  and  when  he  looked 
back  it  was  gone  out  to  sea  again. 

There  was  a  man  here  was  going  to  build  a  new 
house,  and  he  brought  a  wise  woman  to  see  would 
it  be  in  the  right  place.  And  she  made  five  heaps 
of  stones  in  five  places,  and  said,  "Whatever  heap 
isn't  knocked  in  the  night,  build  it  there. "  And 
in  the  morning  all  the  heaps  were  knocked  but  one, 
and  so  he  built  it  there.     (Note  9.) 

One  time  I  was  out  over  by  that  island  with 
another  man,  and  we  saw  three  women  standing 
by  the  shore,  beating  clothes  with  a  beetle.  And 
while  we  looked,  they  vanished,  and  then  we 
heard  the  cry  of  a  child  passing  over  our  heads 
twenty  feet  in  the  air. 

I  know  they  go  out  fishing  like  ourselves,  for 
Father  Mahony  told  me  so;  and  one  night  I  was 
out  myself  with  my  brother,  beyond  where  that 
ship  is,  and  we  heard  talk  going  on,  so  we  knew 


26  Visions  and  Beliefs 

that  a  boat  was  near,  and  we  called  out  to  let 
them  know  we  heard  them,  and  then  we  saw  the 
boat  and  it  was  just  like  any  other  one,  and  the 
talk  went  on,  but  we  couldn't  understand  what 
they  were  saying.  And  then  I  turned  to  light  my 
pipe,  and  while  I  lighted  it,  the  boat  and  all  in  it 
were  gone. 

Mrs.  Casey: 

I  got  a  story  from  an  old  man  down  by  the  sea 
at  Tyrone.  He  says  there  was  a  man  went  down 
one  night  to  move  his  boat  from  the  shore  where  it 
was  to  the  pier.  And  when  he  had  put  out,  he 
found  it  was  going  out  to  sea,  instead  of  to  touch 
the  pier,  and  he  felt  it  very  heavy  in  the  water, 
and  he  looked  behind  him  and  there  on  the  back 
of  the  boat  were  six  men  in  shiny  black  clothes 
like  sailors,  and  there  was  one  like  a  harvest-man 
dressed  in  white  flannel  with  a  belt  round  his 
waist.  And  he  asked  what  they  were  doing,  and 
the  man  in  white  said  he  had  brought  the  others 
out  to  make  away  with  them  there,  and  he  took 
and  cut  their  bodies  in  two  and  threw  them  one  by 
one  over  the  boat,  and  then  he  threw  himself  after 
them  into  the  sea.  And  the  boat  went  under  water 
too,  and  the  poor  man  himself  lost  his  wits,  but 
it  came  up  again  and  he  said  he  had  never  seen  as 
many  people  as  he  did  in  that  minute  under  the 
water.  And  then  he  got  home  and  left  the  boat, 
and  in  the  morning  he  came  down  to  it,  and  there 
was  blood  in  it;  and  first  he  washed  it  and  then 


Sea-Stories  27 

he  painted  it,  but  for  all  he  could  do,  he  couldn't 
get  rid  of  the  blood. 

Peter  Donohue: 

There  was  a  woman,  a  friend  of  this  man's,  living 
out  in  the  middle  island,  and  one  day  she  came  down 
to  where  a  man  of  this  island  was  putting  out  his 
curragh  to  come  back,  and  she  said,  "I  just  saw 
a  great  crowd  of  them — that's  the  Sheogue — going 
over  to  your  island  like  a  cloud. "  And  when  he 
got  home  he  went  up  to  a  house  there  beyond, 
where  the  old  woman  used  to  be  selling  poteen  on 
the  sly.  And  while  he  was  there  her  little  boy 
came  running  in  and  cried,  "Hide  away  the  poteen, 
for  the  police  are  on  the  island !  Such  a  man  called 
to  me  from  his  curragh  to  give  warning,  for  he  saw 
the  road  full  of  them  with  the  crowd  of  them  and 
they  witrf  their  guns  and  cutlasses  and  all  the  rest. " 
But  the  man  was  in  the  house  first  knew  well  what 
it  was,  after  what  he  heard  from  the  woman  on  the 
other  island,  and  that  they  were  no  right  police, 
and  sure  enough  no  other  one  ever  saw  them.  And 
that  same  day,  my  mother  had  put  out  wool  to 
dry  in  front  of  where  that  house  is  with  the  three 
chimneys,  near  the  Chapel.  And  I  was  there 
talking  to  some  man,  one  on  each  side  of  the  yard, 
and  the  wall  between  us.  And  the  day  was  as 
fine  as  this  day  is  and  finer,  and  not  a  breath  of  air 
stirring.  And  a  woman  that  lived  near  by  had  her 
wool  out  drying  too.  And  the  wool  that  was  in 
my  mother's  yard  began  to  rise  up,  as  if  something 


28  Visions  and  Beliefs 

was  under  it,  and  I  called  to  the  other  man  to 
help  me  to  hold  it  down,  but  for  all  we  could  do  it 
went  up  in  the  air,  a  hundred  feet  and  more,  till  we 
could  see  it  no  more.  And  after  a  couple  of  hours 
it  began  to  drop  again,  like  snow,  some  on  the  thatch 
and  some  on  the  rocks  and  some  in  the  gardens. 
And  I  think  it  was  a  fortnight  before  my  mother 
had  done  gathering  it.  And  one  day  she  was 
spinning  it,  I  don't  know  what  put  it  in  my  mind, 
but  I  asked  her  did  she  lose  much  of  that  wool. 
And  what  she  said  was,  "  If  I  didn't  get  more  than 
my  own,  I  didn't  get  less."  That's  true  and  no 
lie,  for  I  never  told  a  lie  in  my  life — I  think.  But 
the  wool  belonging  to  the  neighbouring  woman 
was  never  stirred  at  all. 

And  the  woman  that  had  the  wool  that  wasn't 
stirred,  she  is  the  woman  I  married  after,  and  that's 
now  my  wife. 

There  was  a  man,  one  Power,  died  in  this  island, 
and  one  night  that  was  bright  there  was  a  friend 
of  his  going  out  for  mackerel,  and  he  saw  these 
sands  full  of  people  hurling,  and  he  well  knew 
Power's  voice  that  he  heard  among  them. 

There  was  a  cousin  of  my  own  built  a  new  house, 
and  when  they  were  first  in  it  and  sitting  round  the 
fire,  the  woman  of  the  house  that  was  singing  for 
them  saw  a  great  blot  of  blood  come  down  the 
chimney  on  to  the  floor,  and  they  thought  there 
would  be  no  luck  in  the  house  and  that  it  was  a 
wrong  place.  But  they  had  nothing  but  good  luck 
ever  after. 


Sea-Stories  29 

Peter  Dolan: 

There  was  a  man  that  died  in  the  middle  island, 
that  had  two  wives.  And  one  day  he  was  out  in  the 
curragh  he  saw  the  first  wife  appear.  And  after 
that  one  time  the  son  of  the  second  wife  was  sick, 
and  the  little  girl,  the  first  wife's  daughter,  was 
out  tending  cattle,  and  a  can  of  water  with  her  and 
she  had  a  waistcoat  of  her  father's  put  about  her 
body,  where  it  was  cold.  And  her  mother  ap- 
peared to  her  in  the  form  of  a  sheep,  and  spoke  to 
her,  and  told  her  what  herbs  to  find,  to  cure  the 
step-brother,  and  sure  enough  they  cured  him. 
And  she  bid  her  leave  the  waistcoat  there  and  the 
can,  and  she  did.  And  in  the  morning  the  waist- 
coat was  folded  there,  and  the  can  standing  on  it. 
And  she  appeared  to  her  in  her  own  shape  another 
time,  after  that.  Why  she  came  like  a  sheep  the 
first  time  was  that  she  wouldn't  be  frightened. 
The  girl  is  in  America  now,  and  so  is  the  step- 
brother that  got  well.     {Note  10.) 

A  Galway  Woman: 

One  time  myself,  I  was  up  at  the  well  beyond, 
and  looking  into  it,  a  very  fine  day,  and  no  breath 
of  air  stirring,  and  the  stooks  were  ripe  standing 
about  me.  And  all  in  a  minute  a  noise  began  in 
them,  and  they  were  like  as  if  knocking  at  each 
other  and  fighting  like  soldiers  all  about  me. 

Mary  Moran  : 

There  was  a  girl  here  that  had  been  to  America 
and  came  back,  and  one  day  she  was  coming  over 


30  Visions  and  Beliefs 

from  Liscannor  in  a  curragh,  and  she  looked  back 
and  there  behind  the  curragh  was  the  "  Gan  ceann  " 
the  headless  one.  And  he  followed  the  boat  a 
great  way,  but  she  said  nothing.  But  a  gold  pin 
that  was  in  her  hair  fell  out,  and  into  the  sea,  that 
she  had  brought  from  America,  and  then  it  dis- 
appeared. And  her  sister  was  always  asking  her 
where  was  the  pin  she  brought  from  America,  and 
she  was  afraid  to  say.  But  at  last  she  told  her, 
and  the  sister  said,  "It's  well  for  you  it  fell  out, 
for  what  was  following  you  would  never  have  left 
you,  till  you  threw  it  a  ring  or  something  made  of 
gold."  It  was  the  sister  herself  that  told  me 
this. 

Up  in  the  village  beyond  they  think  a  great  deal 
of  these  things  and  they  won't  part  with  a  drop  of 
milk  on  May  Eve,  and  last  Saturday  week  that  was 
May  Eve  there  was  a  poor  woman  dying  up  there, 
and  she  had  no  milk  of  her  own,  and  as  is  the  cus- 
tom, she  went  out  to  get  a  drop  from  one  or  other 
of  the  neighbours.  But  not  one  would  give  it 
because  it  was  May  Eve.  I  declare  I  cried  when  I 
heard  it,  for  the  poor  woman  died  on  the  second 
day  after. 

And  when  my  sister  was  going  to  America  she 
went  on  the  first  of  May  and  we  had  a  farewell 
party  the  night  before,  and  in  the  night  a  little 
girl  that  was  there  saw  a  woman  from  that  village 
go  out,  and  she  watched  her,  and  saw  her  walk 
round  a  neighbour's  house,  and  pick  some  straw 
from  the  roof. 


Sea-Stories  31 

And  she  told  of  it,  and  it  happened  a  child  had 
died  in  that  house  and  the  father  said  the  woman 
must  have  had  a  hand  in  it,  and  there  was  no  good 
feeling  to  her  for  a  long  while.  Her  own  husband 
is  lying  sick  now,  so  I  hear. 


II 

SEERS  AND  HEALERS 


vol.  i.— 3  33 


II 

SEERS  AND  HEALERS 

BIDDY  EARLY 

IN  talking  to  the  people  I  often  heard  the  name  of 
*  Biddy  Early,  and  I  began  to  gather  many  stories 
of  her,  some  calling  her  a  healer  and  some  a  witch. 
Some  said  she  had  died  a  long  time  ago,  and  some 
that  she  was  still  living.  I  was  sure  after  a  while 
that  she  was  dead,  but  was  told  that  her  house  was 
still  standing,  and  was  on  the  other  side  of  Slieve 
Echtge,  between  Feakle  and  Tulla.  So  one  day  I 
set  out  and  drove  Shamrock,  my  pony,  to  a  shooting 
lodge  built  by  my  grandfather  in  a  fold  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  where  I  had  sometimes,  when  a  young  girl, 
stayed  with  my  brothers  when  they  were  shooting  the 
wild  deer  that  came  and  sheltered  in  the  woods.  It 
had  like  other  places  on  our  estate  a  border  name 
brought  over  from  Northumberland,  but  though  we 
called  it  Chevy  Chase  the  people  spoke  of  its  woods  and 
outskirts  as  Daire-caol,  the  Narrow  Oak  Wood, 
and  Daroda,  the  Two  Roads,  and  Druim-da-Rod, 
their  Ridge.    I  stayed  the  night  in  the  low  thatched 

35 


36  Visions  and  Beliefs 

house t  setting  out  next  day  for  Feakle  "eight  strong 
miles  over  the  mountain. "  It  was  a  wild  road,  and 
the  pony  had  to  splash  his  way  through  two  unbridged 
rivers,  swollen  with  the  summer  rains.  The  red 
mud  of  the  road,  the  purple  heather  and  foxglove,  the 
brown  bogs  were  a  contrast  to  the  grey  rocks  and  walls 
of  Burren  and  Aidhne,  and  there  were  many  low  hills 
brown  when  near,  misty  blue  in  the  distance;  then 
the  Golden  Mountain,  Slieve  nan-Or,  "where  the  last 
great  battle  will  be  fought  before  the  end  of  the  world. " 
Then  I  was  out  of  Connacht  into  Clare,  the  brown 
turning  to  green  pasture  as  I  drove  by  Raftery's 
Lough  Greine. 

I  put  up  my  pony  at  a  little  inn.  There  were 
portraits  of  John  Dillon  and  Michael  Davitt  hanging 
in  the  parlour,  and  the  landlady  told  me  ParnelVs 
likeness  had  been  with  them,  until  the  priest  had 
told  her  he  didn't  think  well  of  her  hanging  it  there. 
There  was  also  on  the  wall,  in  a  frame,  a  warrant  for 
the  arrest  of  one  of  her  sons,  signed  by,  I  think,  Lord 
Cowper,  in  the  days  of  the  Land  War.  "He  got 
half  a  year  in  gaol  the  same  year  Parnell  did.  He 
got  sick  there,  and  though  he  lived  for  some  years  the 
doctor  said  when  he  died  the  illness  he  got  in  gaol 
had  to  do  with  his  death. " 

/  had  been  told  how  to  find  Biddy  Early's  house 
"beyond  the  little  humpy  bridge,"  and  I  walked  on 
till  I  came  to  it,  a  poor  cottage  enough,  high  up  on 
a  mass  of  rock  by  the  roadside.  There  was  only  a 
little  girl  in  the  house,  but  her  mother  came  in  after- 
wards and  told  me  that  Biddy  Early  had  died  about 


Seers  and  Healers  37 

twenty  years  before,  and  that  after  they  had  come 
to  live  in  the  house  they  had  been  "annoyed  for  a 
while  "  by  people  coming  to  look  for  her.  She  had  sent 
them  away,  telling  them  Biddy  Early  was  dead, 
though  a  friendly  priest  had  said  to  her,  u  Why  didn't 
you  let  on  you  were  her  and  make  something  out  of 
them?  "  She  told  me  some  of  the  stories  I  give  below, 
and  showed  me  the  shed  where  the  healer  had 
consulted  with  her  invisible  friends.  I  had  al- 
ready been  given  by  an  old  patient  of  hers  a  "bot- 
tle" prepared  for  the  cure,  but  which  she  had  been 
afraid  to  use.  It  lies  still  unopened  on  a  shelf  in 
my  storeroom.  When  I  got  back  at  nightfall  to 
the  lodge  in  the  woods  I  found  many  of  the  neigh- 
bours  gathered  there,  wanting  to  hear  news  of  "the 
Tulla  Woman"  and  to  know  for  certain  if  she  was 
dead.  I  think  as  time  goes  on  her  fame  will  grow 
and  some  of  the  myths  that  always  hang  in  the  air 
will  gather  round  her,  for  I  think  the  first  thing  I 
was  told  of  her  was,  "There  used  surely  to  be 
enchanters  in  the  old  time,  magicians  and  free- 
masons. Old  Biddy  Early's  power  came  from  the 
same  thing. "      {Note  11.) 


An  Old  Woman  in  the  Lodge  Kitchen  says: 
Do  you  remember  the  time  John  Kevin  beyond 
went  to  see  Biddy  Early,  for  his  wife,  she  was  sick 
at  the  time.  And  Biddy  Early  knew  everything, 
and  that  there  was  a  forth  behind  her  house,  and 
she  said,  "Your  wife  is  too  fond  of  going  out  late 
at  night. " 

/  was  told  by  a  Gate-keeper: 

There  was  a  man  at  Cranagh  had  one  of  his 
sheep  shorn  in  the  night,  and  all  the  wool  taken. 
And  he  got  on  his  horse  and  went  to  Feakle  and 
Biddy  Early,  and  she  told  him  the  name  of  the 
man  that  did  it,  and  where  it  was  hidden,  and  so 
he  got  it  back  again. 

There  was  a  man  went  to  Biddy  Early,  and 
she  told  him  that  the  woman  he'd  marry  would 
have  her  husband  killed  by  his  brother.  And  so 
it  happened,  for  the  woman  he  married  was  sitting 
by  the  fire  with  her  husband,  and  the  brother  came 
in,  having  a  drop  of  drink  taken,  and  threw  a  pint 
pot  at  him  that  hit  him  on  the  head  and  killed  him. 
It  was  the  man  that  married  her  that  told  me  this. 

Mrs,  Kearns: 

Did  I  know  any  one  that  was  taken  by  them? 
Well,  I  never  knew  one  that  was  brought  back 

39 


40  Visions  and  Beliefs 

again.  Himself  went  one  time  to  Biddy  Early  for 
his  uncle,  Donohue,  that  was  sick,  and  he  found 
her  there  and  her  fingers  all  covered  with  big  gold 
rings,  and  she  gave  him  a  bottle,  and  she  said: 
"Go  in  no  house  on  your  way  home,  or  stop  no- 
where, or  you'll  lose  it."  But  going  home  he  had 
a  thirst  on  him  and  he  came  to  a  public-house, 
and  he  wouldn't  go  in,  but  he  stopped  and  bid  the 
boy  bring  him  out  a  drink.  But  a  little  farther 
on  the  road  the  horse  got  a  fall,  and  the  bottle  was 
broke. 

Mrs.  Cregan: 

It's  I  was  with  this  woman  here  to  Biddy  Early. 
And  when  she  saw  me,  she  knew  it  was  for  my 
husband  I  came,  and  she  looked  in  her  bottle  and 
she  said,  "It's  nothing  put  upon  him  by  my  people 
that's  wrong  with  him."  And  she  bid  me  give 
him  cold  oranges  and  some  other  things — herbs. 
He  got  better  after. 

Daniel  Curtin: 

Did  I  ever  hear  of  Biddy  Early?  There's  not 
a  man  in  this  countryside  over  forty  year  old  that 
hasn't  been  with  her  some  time  or  other.  There's 
a  man  living  in  that  house  over  there  was  sick 
one  time,  and  he  went  to  her,  and  she  cured  him, 
but  says  she,  "You'll  have  to  lose  something,  and 
don't  fret  after  it. "  So  he  had  a  grey  mare  and 
she  was  going  to  foal,  and  one  morning  when  he 
went  out  he  saw  that  the  foal  was  born,  and  was 


Seers  and  Healers  41 

lying  dead  by  the  side  of  the  wall.  So  he  re- 
membered what  she  said  to  him  and  he  didn't 
fret. 

There  was  one  Dillane  in  Kinvara,  Sir  William 
knew  him  well,  and  he  went  to  her  one  time  for 
a  cure.  And  Father  Andrew  came  to  the  house 
and  was  mad  with  him  for  going,  and  says  he,  "You 
take  the  cure  out  of  the  hands  of  God. "  And  Mrs. 
Dillane  said,  "Your  Reverence,  none  of  us  can  do 
that."  "Well,"  says  Father  Andrew,  "then  I'll 
see  what  the  devil  can  do  and  I'll  send  my  horse 
tomorrow,  that  has  a  sore  in  his  leg  this  long  time, 
and  try  will  she  be  able  to  cure  him. " 

So  next  day  he  sent  a  man  with  his  horse,  and 
when  he  got  to  Biddy  Early's  house  she  came  out, 
and  she  told  him  every  word  that  Father  Andrew 
had  said,  and  she  cured  the  sore.  So  after  that, 
he  left  the  people  alone;  but  before  it,  he'd  be 
dressed  in  a  frieze  coat  and  a  riding  whip  in  his 
hand,  driving  away  the  people  from  going  to 
her. 

She  had  four  or  five  husbands,  and  they  all 
died  of  drink  one  after  another.  Maybe  twenty 
or  thirty  people  would  be  there  in  the  day  looking 
for  cures,  and  every  one  of  them  would  bring  a 
bottle  of  whiskey.  Wild  cards  they  all  were,  or 
they  wouldn't  have  married  her.  She'd  help  too 
to  bring  the  butter  back.  Always  on  the  first  of 
May,  it  used  to  be  taken,  and  maybe  what  would 
be  taken  from  one  man  would  be  conveyed  to 
another. 


42  Visions  and  Beliefs 

Mr.  McCabe: 

Biddy  Early?  Not  far  from  this  she  lived, 
above  at  Feakle.  I  got  cured  by  her  myself  one 
time.  Look  at  this  thumb — I  got  it  hurted  one 
time,  and  I  went  out  into  the  field  after  and  was 
ploughing  all  the  day,  I  was  that  greedy  for  work. 
And  when  I  went  in  I  had  to  lie  on  the  bed  with  the 
pain  of  it,  and  it  swelled  and  the  arm  with  it,  to 
the  size  of  a  horse's  thigh.  I  stopped  two  or 
three  days  in  the  bed  with  the  pain  of  it,  and  then 
my  wife  went  to  see  Biddy  Early  and  told  her 
about  it,  and  she  came  home  and  the  next  day  it 
burst,  and  you  never  seen  anything  like  all  the 
stuff  that  came  away  from  it.  A  good  bit  after 
I  went  to  her  myself,  where  it  wasn't  quite  healed, 
and  she  said,  "You'd  have  lost  it  altogether  if 
your  wife  hadn't  been  so  quick  to  come."  She 
brought  me  into  a  small  room,  and  said  holy  words 
and  sprinkled  holy  water  and  told  me  to  believe. 
The  priests  were  against  her,  but  they  were  wrong. 
How  could  that  be  evil  doing  that  was  all  charity 
and  kindness  and  healing? 

She  was  a  decent  looking  woman,  no  different 
from  any  other  woman  of  the  country.  The  boy 
she  was  married  to  at  the  time  was  lying  drunk  in 
the  bed.  There  were  side-cars  and  common  cars 
and  gentry  and  country  people  at  the  door,  just 
like  Gort  market,  and  dinner  for  all  that  came, 
and  everyone  would  bring  her  something,  but  she 
didn't  care  what  it  was.  Rich  farmers  would 
bring  her  the  whole  side  of  a  pig.     Myself,   I 


Seers  and  Healers  43 

brought  a  bottle  of  whiskey  and  a  shilling's  worth 
of  bread,  and  a  quarter  of  sugar  and  a  quarter 
pound  of  tea.  She  was  very  rich,  for  there  wasn't 
a  farmer  but  would  give  her  the  grass  of  a  couple 
of  bullocks  or  a  filly.  She  had  the  full  of  a  field 
of  fillies  if  they'd  all  been  gathered  together.  She 
left  no  children,  and  there's  no  doubt  at  all  that 
the  reason  of  her  being  able  to  do  cures  was  that 
she  was  away  seven  years.  She  didn't  tell  me 
about  it  but  she  spoke  of  it  to  others. 

When  I  was  coming  away  I  met  a  party  of 
country  people  on  a  cart  from  Limerick,  and  they 
asked  where  was  her  house,  and  I  told  them:  "Go 
on  to  the  cross,  and  turn  to  the  left,  and  follow 
the  straight  road  till  you  come  to  the  little  humpy 
bridge,  and  soon  after  that  you'll  come  to  the 
house. " 

But  the  priests  would  be  mad  if  they  knew  that 
I  told  any  one  the  way. 

She  died  about  twelve  year  ago;  I  didn't  go  to 
the  wake  myself,  or  the  funeral,  but  I  heard  that 
her  death  was  natural. 

No,  Mrs.  Early  is  no  relation  to  Biddy  Early — 
the  nuns  asked  her  the  same  thing  when  she  was 
married.  A  cousin  of  hers  had  her  hand  cut  with 
a  jug  that  was  broke,  and  she  went  up  to  her  and 
when  she  got  there,  Biddy  Early  said:  "It's  a 
thing  you  never  should  do,  to  beat  a  child  that 
breaks  a  cup  or  a  jug. "  And  sure  enough  it  was  a 
child  that  broke  it,  and  she  beat  her  for  doing  it. 
But  cures  she  did  sure  enough. 


44  Visions  and  Beliefs 

Bartley  Coen: 

There  was  a  neighbour  of  my  own,  Andrew 
Dennehy : 

I  was  knocked  up  by  him  one  night  to  go  to  the 
house,  because  he  said  they  were  calling  to  him. 
But  when  they  got  there,  there  was  nothing  to  be 
found.  But  some  see  these  things,  and  some  can't. 
It's  against  our  creed  to  believe  in  them.  And  the 
priests  won't  let  on  that  they  believe  in  them 
themselves,  but  they  are  more  in  dread  of  going 
about  at  night  than  any  of  us.  They  were  against 
Biddy  Early  too.  There  was  a  man  I  knew  living 
near  the  sea,  and  he  set  out  to  go  to  her  one  time. 
And  on  his  way  he  went  into  his  brother-in-law's 
house,  and  the  priest  came  in  there,  and  bid  him 
not  to  go  on.  "Well,  Father,"  says  he,  "cure 
me  yourself  if  you  won't  let  me  go  to  her  to  be 
cured."  And  when  the  priest  wouldn't  do  that 
(for  the  priests  can  do  many  cures  if  they  like  to), 
he  went  on  to  her.  And  the  minute  he  came  in, 
"Well, "  says  she,  "you  made  a  great  fight  for  me 
on  the  way."  For  though  it's  against  our  creed 
to  believe  it,  she  could  hear  any  earthly  thing  that 
was  said  in  every  part,  miles  off.  But  she  had 
two  red  eyes,  and  some  used  to  say,  "If  she 
can  cure  so  much,  why  can't  she  cure  her  own 
eyes?" 

No,  she  wasn't  away  herself.  It  is  said  it  was 
from  a  son  of  her  own  she  got  the  knowledge,  a 
little  chap  that  was  astray.  And  one  day  when 
he  was  lying  sick  in  the  bed  he  said:  "There's 


Seers  and  Healers  45 

such  and  such  a  woman  has  a  hen  down  in  the  pot, 
and  if  I  had  the  soup  of  the  hen,  I  think  it  would 
cure  me."  So  the  mother  went  to  the  house,  and 
when  she  got  there,  sure  enough,  there  was  a  hen 
in  the  pot  on  the  fire.  But  she  was  ashamed  to 
tell  what  she  came  for,  and  she  let  on  to  have 
only  come  for  a  visit,  and  so  she  sat  down.  But 
presently  in  the  heat  of  the  talking  she  told  what 
the  little  chap  had  said.  "Well,"  says  the  woman, 
"take  the  soup  and  welcome,  and  the  hen  too  if  it 
will  do  him  any  good."  So  she  brought  them  with 
her,  and  when  the  boy  saw  the  soup,  "It  can't 
cure  me,"  says  he,  "for  no  earthly  thing  can  do 
that.  But  since  I  see  how  kind  and  how  willing 
you  are,  and  did  your  best  for  me,  I'll  leave  you  a 
way  of  living. "  And  so  he  did,  and  taught  her  all 
she  knew.     That's  what's  said  at  any  rate. 

Mr.  Fahy: 

Well,  that's  what's  believed,  that  it's  from  her 
son  Biddy  Early  got  it.  After  his  death  always 
lamenting  for  him  she  was,  till  he  came  back,  and 
gave  her  the  gift  of  curing. 

She  had  no  red  eyes,  but  was  a  fresh  clean- 
looking  woman ;  sure  any  one  might  have  red  eyes 
when  they'd  got  a  cold. 

She  wouldn't  refuse  even  a  person  that  would 
come  from  the  very  bottom  of  the  black  North. 

"I  was  with  Biddy  Early  myself  one  time,  and 
got  a  cure  from  her  for  my  little  girl  that  was  sick. 


46  Visions  and  Beliefs 

A  bottle  of  whiskey  I  brought  her,  and  the  first 
thing  she  did  was  to  open  it  and  to  give  me  a  glass 
out  of  it.  "For, "  says  she,  "you'll  maybe  want  it 
my  poor  man."  But  I  had  plenty  of  courage  in 
those  days. 

The  priests  were  against  her;  often  Father  Boyle 
would  speak  of  her  in  his  sermons.  They  can  all 
do  those  cures  themselves,  but  that's  a  thing  it's 
not  right  to  be  talking  about. 

The  Little  Girl  of  Biddy  Early's  House: 

The  people  do  be  full  of  stories  of  all  the  cures 
she  did.  Once  after  we  came  to  live  here  a  car- 
load of  people  came,  and  asked  was  Biddy  Early 
here,  and  my  mother  said  she  was  dead.  When 
she  told  the  priest  he  said  she  had  a  right  to  shake 
a  bottle  and  say  she  was  her,  and  get  something 
from  them.  It  was  by  the  bottle  she  did  all,  to 
shake  it,  and  she'd  see  everything  when  she  looked 
in  it.  Sometimes  she'd  give  a  bottle  of  some  cure 
to  people  that  came,  but  if  she'd  say  to  them, 
"You'll  never  bring  it  home, "  break  it  they  should 
on  the  way  home,  with  all  the  care  they'd  take  of  it. 

She  was  as  good,  and  better,  to  the  poor  as  to  the 
rich.  Any  poor  person  passing  the  road,  she'd 
call  in  and  give  a  cup  of  tea  or  a  glass  of  whiskey 
to,  and  bread  and  what  they  wanted. 

She  had  a  big  chest  within  in  that  room,  and  it 
full  of  pounds  of  tea  and  bottles  of  wine  and  of 
whiskey  and  of  claret,  and  all  things  in  the  world. 
One  time  she  called  in  a  man  that  was  passing 


Seers  and  Healers  47 

and  gave  him  a  glass  of  whiskey,  and  then  she 
said  to  him,  "The  road  you  were  going  home  by, 
don't  go  by  it."  So  he  asked  why  not,  and  she 
took  the  bottle — a  long  shaped  bottle  it  was — and 
looked  into  it,  holding  it  up,  and  then  she  bid  him 
look  through  it,  and  he'd  see  what  would  happen 
him.  But  her  husband  said,  "Don't  show  it  to 
him,  it  might  give  him  a  fright  he  wouldn't  get 
over."  So  she  only  said,  "Well,  go  home  by 
another  road. "  And  so  he  did  and  got  home  safe, 
for  in  the  bottle  she  had  seen  a  party  of  men  that 
wouldn't  have  let  him  pass  alive.  She  got  the 
rites  of  the  Church  when  she  died,  but  first  she 
had  to  break  the  bottle. 

It  was  from  her  brother  that  she  got  the  power, 
when  she  had  to  go  to  the  workhouse,  and  he  came 
back,  and  gave  her  the  way  of  doing  the  cures. 

The  Blacksmith  I  met  near  Tulla: 

I  know  you  to  be  a  respectable  lady  and  an  hon- 
ourable one  because  I  know  your  brothers,  meeting 
them  as  I  do  at  the  fair  of  Scariff.  No  fair  it 
would  be  if  they  weren't  there.  I  knew  Biddy 
Early  well,  a  nice  fresh-looking  woman  she  was. 
It's  to  her  the  people  used  to  be  flocking,  to  the  door 
and  even  to  the  window,  and  if  they'd  come  late 
in  the  day,  they'd  have  no  chance  of  getting  to 
her,  they'd  have  to  take  lodgings  for  the  night  in 
the  town.  She  was  a  great  woman.  If  any  of  the 
men  that  came  into  the  house  had  a  drop  too  much 
drink  taken,  she'd  turn  them  out  if  they  said  an 


48  Visions  and  Beliefs 

unruly  word.  And  if  any  of  them  were  fighting 
or  disputing  or  going  to  law,  she'd  say,  M  Be  at  one, 
and  ye  can  rule  the  world."  The  priests  were 
against  her  and  used  to  be  taking  the  cloaks  and 
the  baskets  from  the  country  people  to  keep  them 
back  from  going  to  her. 

I  never  went  to  her  myself — for  you  should  know 
that  no  ill  or  harm  ever  comes  to  a  blacksmith. 


An  Old  Midwife : 

Tell  me  now  is  there  anything  wrong  about 
you  or  your  son  that  you  went  to  that  house?  I 
went  there  but  once  myself,  when  my  little  girl 
that  was  married  was  bad,  after  her  second  baby 
being  born.  I  went  to  the  house  and  told  her 
about  it,  and  she  took  the  bottle  and  shook  it  and 
looked  in  it,  and  then  she  turned  and  said  some- 
thing to  himself  [her  husband]  that  I  didn't  hear — 
and  she  just  waved  her  hand  to  me  like  that,  and 
bid  me  go  home,  for  she  would  take  nothing  from 
me.  But  himself  came  out  and  told  that  what 
she  was  after  seeing  in  the  bottle  was  my  little 
girl,  and  the  coffin  standing  beside  her.  So  I 
went  home,  and  sure  enough  on  the  tenth  day 
after,  she  was  dead. 

The  lodge  people  came  rushing  out  to  see  the  pic- 
ture of  Biddy  Early's  house  and  ask,  "Did  she 
leave  the  power  to  any  one  else?11  and  I  told  of  the 
broken  bottle.     But  Mr.  McCabe  said,   "She  only 


Seers  and  Healers  49 

had  the  power  for  her  own  term,  and  no  one  else 
could  get  it  from  her." 

I  asked  old  Mr.  McCabe  if  he  had  lost  anything 
when  she  cured  him,  and  he  said:  "Not  at  that  time, 
but  sometimes  I  thought  afterwards  it  came  on  my 
family  when  I  lost  so  many  of  my  children.  A  grand 
stout  girl  went  from  me,  stout  and  broad,  what  would 
ail  her  to  go?" 

I  was  told  by  Mat  King: 

Biddy  Early  surely  did  thousands  of  cures.  Out 
in  the  stable  she  used  to  go,  where  her  friends  met 
her,  and  they  told  her  all  things.  There  was  a 
little  priest  long  ago  used  to  do  cures, — Soggarthin 
Mina,  they  used  to  call  him, — and  once  he  came 
in  this  house  he  looked  up  and  said,  "There — it's 
full  of  them — there  they  are." 

There  was  a  man,  one  Flaherty,  came  to  his 
brother-in-law's  house  one  day  to  borrow  a  horse. 
And  the  next  day  the  horse  was  sent  back,  but  he 
didn't  come  himself.  And  after  a  few  days  more 
they  went  to  ask  for  him,  but  he  had  never  come 
back  at  all.  So  the  brother-in-law  went  to  Biddy 
Early's  and  she  and  some  others  were  drinking 
whiskey,  and  they  were  sorry  that  they  were  near 
at  the  bottom  of  the  bottle.  And  she  said : ' '  That's 
no  matter,  there's  a  man  on  his  way  now,  there'll 
soon  be  more."  And  sure  enough  there  was,  for 
he  brought  a  bottle  with  him.    So  when  he  came  in, 

VOL.  1—4 


So  Visions  and  Beliefs 

he  told  her  about  Flaherty  having  disappeared. 
And  she  described  to  him  a  corner  of  a  garden  at 
the  back  of  a  house  and  she  said,  ' '  Go  look  and 
you'll  find  him  there, "  and  so  they  did,  dead  and 
buried. 

Another  time  a  man's  cattle  was  dying,  and  he 
went  to  her  and  she  said,  "Is  there  such  a  place  as 
Benburb,  having  a  forth  up  on  the  hill  beyond 
there?  for  it's  there  they're  gone."  And  sure 
enough,  it  was  towards  that  forth  they  were 
straying  before  they  died. 

An  Old  Man  on  the  Beach: 

The  priests  were  greatly  against  Biddy  Early. 
And  there's  no  doubt  it  was  from  the  faeries  she 
got  the  knowledge.  But  who  wouldn't  go  to  hell 
for  a  cure  if  one  of  his  own  was  sick?  And  the 
priests  don't  like  to  be  doing  cures  themselves. 
Father  Flynn  said  to  me  (rather  incoherent  in  the 
high  wind),  if  I  do  them,  I  let  the  devil  into  me. 
But  there  was  Father  Carey  used  to  do  them,  but 
he  went  wrong,  with  the  people  bringing  too  much 
whiskey  to  pay  him — and  Father  Mahony  has  him 
stopped  now. 

Maher  of  Slieve  Echtge: 

I  knew  a  man  went  to  Biddy  Early,  and  while 
she  was  in  the  other  room  he  made  the  tongs  red 
hot  and  laid  them  down,  and  when  she  came  back 
she  took  them  up  and  burned  herself.  And  he 
said,  if  she  had  known  anything  she'd  have  known 


Seers  and  Healers  51 

not  to  touch  it,  that  it  was  red  hot.     So  he  walked 
off  and  asked  for  no  cure. 

The  Spinning-Woman: 

Biddy  Early  was  a  witch,  wherever  she  got  it. 
There  was  a  priest  at  Feakle  spoke  against  her 
one  time,  and  soon  after  he  was  passing  near  her 
house  and  she  put  something  on  the  horse  so  that 
he  made  a  bolt  into  the  river  and  stopped  there 
in  the  middle,  and  wouldn't  go  back  or  forward. 
Some  people  from  the  neighbourhood  went  to  her, 
and  she  told  them  all  about  the  whole  place,  and 
that  one  time  there  was  a  great  battle  about  the 
castle,  and  that  there  is  a  passage  going  from  here 
to  the  forth  beyond  on  Dromore  Hill,  and  to 
another  place  that's  near  Maher's  house.  And 
she  said  that  there  is  a  cure  for  all  sicknesses 
hidden  between  the  two  wheels  of  Bally  lee  mill. 
And  how  did  she  know  that  there  was  a  mill  here 
at  all?  Witchcraft  wherever  she  got  it;  away  she 
may  have  been  in  a  trance.  She  had  a  son,  and 
one  time  he  went  to  the  hurling  beyond  at  some 
place  in  Tipperary,  and  none  could  stand  against 
him;  he  was  like  a  deer. 

I  went  to  Biddy  Early  one  time  myself,  about 
my  little  boy  that's  now  in  America  that  was  lying 
sick  in  the  house.  But  on  the  way  to  her  I  met 
a  sergeant  of  police  and  he  asked  where  was  I 
going,  and  when  I  told  him,  he  said,  to  joke  with 
me,    "Biddy    Early's    dead."     "May    the   devil 


52  Visions  and  Beliefs 

die  with  her,"  says  I.  Well,  when  I  got  to  the 
house,  what  do  you  think,  if  she  didn't  know  that, 
and  what  I  said.  And  she  was  vexed  and  at  the 
first,  she  would  do  nothing  for  me.  I  had  a  pound 
for  her  here  in  my  bosom.  But  when  I  held  it 
out  she  wouldn't  take  it,  but  she  turned  the  rings 
on  her  fingers,  for  she  had  a  ring  for  every  one,  and 
she  said,  "A  shilling  for  this  one,  sixpence  for 
another  one."  But  all  she  told  me  was  that  the 
boy  was  nervous,  and  so  he  was,  she  was  right  in 
that,  and  that  he'd  get  well,  and  so  he  did. 

There  was  a  man  beyond  in  Cloon,  was  walking 
near  the  gate  the  same  day  and  his  little  boy  with 
him,  and  he  turned  his  foot  and  hurt  it,  and  she 
knew  that.  She  told  me  she  slept  in  Ballylee  mill 
last  night,  and  that  there  was  a  cure  for  all  things 
in  the  world  between  the  two  wheels  there.  Surely 
she  was  away  herself,  and  as  to  her  son,  she  brought 
him  back  with  her,  and  for  eight  or  nine  year  he 
lay  in  the  bed  in  the  house.  And  he'd  never  stir 
so  long  as  she  was  in  it,  but  no  sooner  was  she  gone 
away  anywhere  than  he'd  be  out  down  the  village 
among  the  people,  and  then  back  again  before  she'd 
get  to  the  house. 

She  had  three  husbands,  I  saw  one  of  them  when 
I  was  there,  but  I  knew  by  the  look  of  him  he 
wouldn't  live  long.  One  man  I  know  went  to  her 
and  she  sent  him  on  to  a  woman  at  Kilrush — one 
of  her  own  sort,  and  they  helped  one  another. 
She  said  to  some  woman  I  knew:  "If  you  have  a 
bowl  broke  or  a  plate  throw  it  out  of  the  door,  and 


Seers  and  Healers  53 

don't  make  any  attempt  to  mend  it,  it  vexes 
them,11 

Mrs.  McDonagh: 

Our  religion  doesn't  allow  us  to  go  to  fortune 
tellers.  They  don't  get  the  knowledge  from  God, 
and  so  it  must  be  from  demons. 

The  priests  took  the  bottle  from  Biddy  Early 
before  she  died,  and  they  found  black  things  in  it. 

I  never  went  to  Biddy  Early  myself.  I  think 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  devilment  in  the  things 
she  did.  The  priests  can  do  cures  as  well  as  she 
did,  but  they  don't  like  to  do  them,  unless  they're 
curates  that  like  to  get  the  money. 

There  was  a  man  in  Cloughareeva  and  his  wife 
was  that  bad  she  would  go  out  in  her  shift  at 
night  into  the  field.  And  he  went  to  Biddy  Early 
and  she  said,  "Within  three  days  a  disgraced  priest 
will  come  to  you  and  will  cure  her. " 

And  after  three  days  the  disgraced  priest  that 
had  been  put  out  for  drink  came  bowling  into  the 
house,  and  they  reached  down  from  the  shelf  a 
bottle  of  whiskey.  Father  Boyle  was  mad  when 
he  heard  of  it,  but  he  cured  her  all  the  same. 

There  was  a  man  on  this  estate,  and  he  sixty 
years,  and  he  took  to  the  bed,  and  his  wife  went  to 
Biddy  Early  and  she  said,  "It  can't  be  by  them 
he's  taken,  what  use  would  it  be  to  them,  he  being 


54  Visions  and  Beliefs 

so  old. "  And  Biddy  Early  is  the  one  that  should 
surely  know.  I  went  to  her  myself  one  time,  to 
get  a  cure  for  myself  when  I  fell  coming  down  that 
hill  up  there,  and  got  a  hurt  on  my  knee.  And 
she  gave  me  one  and  she  told  me  all  about  the 
whole  place,  and  that  there  was  a  bowl  broken  in 
the  house,  and  so  there  was.  The  priests  can  do 
cures  by  the  same  power  that  she  had,  but  those 
that  have  much  stock  don't  like  to  be  doing  them, 
for  they're  sure  to  lose  all. 

I  knew  one  went  to  Biddy  Early  about  his  wife, 
and  as  soon  as  she  saw  him,  she  said,  "On  the 
fourth  day  a  discarded  priest  will  call  in  and  cure 
your  wife  " ;  and  so  he  did — one  Father  James. 

Mrs.  Nelly: 

The  old  man  here  that  lost  his  hair  went  to 
Biddy  Early  but  he  didn't  want  to  go,  and  we 
forced  him  and  persuaded  him.  And  when  he  got 
to  the  house  she  said,  "It  wasn't  of  your  own  free 
will  you  came  here,"  and  she  wouldn't  do  anything 
for  him. 

She  didn't  like  either  for  you  to  go  too  late. 
Dolan's  sister  was  sick  a  long  time,  and  when  the 
brother  went  at  the  last  to  Biddy  Early  she  gave 
him  a  bottle  with  a  cure.  But  on  the  way  home 
the  bottle  was  broke,  and  the  car,  and  the  horse 
got  a  fright  and  ran  away.  She  said  to  him  then, 
"Why  did  you  go  to  cut  down  the  bush  of  white 
thorn  you  see  out  of  the  window?"     And  then  she 


Seers  and  Healers  55 

told  him  an  old  woman  in  the  village  had  over- 
looked him — Murphy's  sister — and  she  gave  him 
a  bottle  to  sprinkle  about  her  house.  I  suppose 
she  didn't  like  that  bush  being  interfered  with, 
she  had  too  much  charms. 

And  when  Doctor  Folan  was  sent  for  to  see  her 
he  was  led  astray,  and  it  is  beyond  Ballylee  he 
found  himself.  And  surely  she  was  taken  if  ever 
any  one  was. 

An  Old  Woman: 

I  went  up  to  Biddy  Early's  one  time  with 
another  woman.  A  fine  stout  woman  she  was, 
sitting  straight  up  on  her  chair.  She  looked  at 
me  and  she  told  me  that  my  son  was  worse  than 
what  I  was,  and  for  myself  she  bid  me  to  take  what 
I  was  taking  before,  and  that's  dandelions.  Five 
leaves  she  bid  me  pick  and  lay  them  out  on  the 
table  with  three  pinches  of  salt  on  the  three  middle 
ones.  As  to  my  son,  she  gave  me  a  bottle  for  him 
but  he  wouldn't  take  it  and  he  got  better  without. 

The  priests  were  against  her,  but  there  was  one 
of  them  passed  near  her  house  one  day,  and  his 
horse  fell  forward.  And  he  sent  his  boy  to  her  and 
she  said,  "Tell  him  to  spit  on  the  horse  and  to  say, 
1  God  bless  it,' "  and  he  did  and  it  rose  again.  He 
had  looked  at  it  proud-like  without  saying  "God 
bless  it"  in  his  heart. 

Daniel  Shea: 

It  was  all  you  could  do  to  get  to  Biddy  Early 


56  Visions  and  Beliefs 

with  your  skin  whole,  the  priests  were  so  set 
against  her.  I  went  to  her  one  time  myself,  and 
it  was  hard  when  you  got  near  to  know  the  way, 
for  all  the  people  were  afraid  to  tell  it. 

It  was  about  a  little  chap  of  my  own  I  went,  that 
some  strange  thing  had  been  put  upon.  When 
I  got  to  her  house  there  were  about  fifty  to  be 
attended  to  before  me,  and  when  my  turn  came 
she  looked  in  the  bottle,  a  sort  of  a  common  green- 
ish one  that  seemed  to  have  nothing  in  it.  And 
she  told  me  where  I  came  from,  and  the  shape  of 
the  house  and  the  appearance  of  it,  and  of  the 
lake  you  see  there,  and  everything  round  about. 
And  she  told  me  of  a  lime-kiln  that  was  near,  and 
then  she  said,  "The  harm  that  came  to  him  came 
from  the  forth  beyond  that."  And  I  never  knew 
of  there  being  a  forth  there,  but  after  I  came  home 
I  went  to  look,  and  there  sure  enough  it  was. 

And  she  told  me  how  it  had  come  on  him,  and 
bid  me  remember  a  day  that  a  certain  gentleman 
stopped  and  spoke  to  me  when  I  was  out  working 
in  the  hayfield,  and  the  child  with  me  playing 
about.  And  I  remembered  it  well,  it  was  old 
James  Hill  of  Creen,  that  was  riding  past,  and 
stopped  and  talked  and  was  praising  the  child. 
And  it  was  close  by  that  forth  beyond  that  James 
Hill  was  born. 

It  was  soon  after  that  day  that  the  mother  and 
I  went  to  Loughrea,  and  when  we  came  back,  the 
child  had  slipped  on  the  threshold  of  the  house  and 
got  a  fall,  and  he  was  screeching  and  calling  out 


Seers  and  Healers  57 

that  his  knee  was  hurt,  and  from  that  time  he  did 
no  good,  and  pined  away  and  had  the  pain  in  the 
knee  always. 

And  Biddy  Early  said,  "While  you're  talking 
to  me  now  the  child  lies  dying,"  and  that  was  at 
twelve  o'clock  in  the  day.  And  she  made  up  a 
bottle  for  me,  herbs  I  believe  it  was  made  of,  and 
she  said,  "Take  care  of  it  going  home,  and  what- 
ever may  happen,  don't  drop  it " ;  and  she  wrapped 
it  in  all  the  folds  of  my  handkerchief.  So  when  I  was 
coming  home  and  got  near  Tillyra  I  heard  voices 
over  the  wall  talking,  and  when  I  got  to  the  Rox- 
borough  gate  there  were  many  people  talking  and 
coming  to  where  we  were.  I  could  hear  them  and 
see  them,  and  the  man  that  was  with  me.  But  when 
I  heard  them  I  remembered  what  she  said,  and  I 
took  the  bottle  in  my  two  hands  and  held  it,  and 
so  I  brought  it  home  safely.  And  when  I  got 
home  they  told  me  the  child  was  worse,  and  that 
at  twelve  o'clock  the  day  before  he  lay  as  they 
thought  dying.  And  when  I  brought  the  bottle 
to  him,  he  pulled  the  bed-clothes  up  over  his  head, 
and  we  had  the  work  of  the  world  to  make  him 
taste  it.  But  from  the  time  he  took  it,  the  pain 
in  the  knee  left  him  and  he  began  to  get  better, 
and  Biddy  Early  had  told  me  not  to  let  many  days 
pass  without  coming  to  her  again,  when  she  gave 
me  the  bottle.  But  seeing  him  so  well,  I  thought 
it  no  use  to  go  again,  and  it  was  not  on  May  Day, 
but  it  was  during  the  month  of  May  he  died.  He 
took  to  the  bed  before  that,  and  he'd  be  always 


58  Visions  and  Beliefs 

calling  to  me  to  come  inside  the  bed  where  he  was, 
and  if  I  went  in,  he'd  hardly  let  me  go.  But  I  got 
afraid,  and  I  didn't  like  to  be  too  much  with  him. 

He  was  but  eight  years  old  when  he  died,  but 
Ned  Cahel  that  used  to  live  beyond  there  then 
told  me  privately  that  when  I'd  be  out  of  the  house 
and  he'd  come  in,  the  little  chap  would  ask  for  the 
pipe,  and  take  it  and  smoke  it,  but  he'd  never  let 
me  see  him  doing  it.  And  he  was  old-fashioned 
in  all  his  ways. 

Another  thing  Biddy  Early  told  me  to  do  was  to 
go  out  before  sunrise  to  where  there'd  be  a  bound- 
ary wall  between  two  or  three  estates,  and  to  bring 
a  bottle,  and  lay  it  in  the  grass  and  gather  the  dew 
into  it.  But  there  were  hundreds  of  people  she 
turned  away,  because  she'd  say,  "What's  wrong 
with  you  has  nothing  to  do  with  my  business. " 

There  was  a  Clare  woman  with  me  when  I  went 
there,  and  she  told  me  there  was  a  boy  from  a 
village  near  her  was  brought  tied  in  a  cart  to  Biddy 
Early,  and  she  said,  "If  I  cure  you,  will  you  be 
willing  to  marry  me?"  And  he  said  he  would. 
So  she  cured  him  and  married  him.  I  saw  him 
there  at  her  house.  It  might  be  that  she  had  the 
illness  put  upon  him  first. 

The  priests  don't  do  cures  by  the  same  means, 
and  they  don't  like  to  do  them  at  all.  It  was  in  my 
house  that  you  see  that  Father  Gregan  did  one  on 
Mr.  Phayre.  And  he  cured  a  girl  up  in  the  moun- 
tains after,  and  where  is  he  now  but  in  a  mad- 
house.    They  are  afraid  of  the  power  they  do  them 


Seers  and  Healers  59 

by,  that  it  will  be  too  strong  for  them.  Some  say 
the  bishops  don't  like  them  to  do  cures  because 
the  whiskey  they  drink  to  give  them  courage  before 
they  do  them  is  very  apt  to  make  drunkards  of 
them.  It's  not  out  of  the  prayer-book  they  read, 
but  out  of  the  Roman  ritual,  and  that's  a  book  you 
can  read  evil  out  of  as  well  as  good. 

There  was  a  boy  of  the  Saggartons  in  the  house 
went  to  Biddy  Early  and  she  told  him  the  house 
of  his  bachelor  [the  girl  he  would  marry]  and  he 
did  marry  her  after.  And  she  cured  him  of  a 
weakness  he  had  and  cured  many,  but  it  was  sel- 
dom the  bottle  she'd  give  could  be  brought  home 
without  being  spilled.  I  wonder  did  she  go  to 
them  when  she  died.  She  got  the  cure  among  them 
anyway. 

Mrs.  Dillon: 

My  mother  got  crippled  in  her  bed  one  night — 
God  save  the  hearers — and  it  was  a  long  time 
before  she  could  walk  again  with  the  pain  in  her 
back.  And  my  father  was  always  telling  her  to  go 
to  Biddy  Early,  and  so  at  last  she  went.  But 
she  could  do  nothing  for  her,  for  she  said,  "What 
ails  you  has  nothing  to  do  with  my  business." 
And  she  said,  "You  have  lost  three,  and  one  was  a 
grand  little  fair-haired  one,  and  if  you'd  like  to 
see  her  again,  I'll  show  her  to  you."  And  when 
she  said  that,  my  mother  had  no  courage  to  look 
and  to  see  the  child  she  lost,  but  fainted  then  and 


60  Visions  and  Beliefs 

there.  And  then  she  said,  "There's  a  field  of  corn 
beyond  your  house  and  a  field  with  hay,  and  it's 
not  long  since  that  the  little  fellow  that  wears  a 
Llanberis  cap  fell  asleep  there  on  a  cock  of  hay. 
And  before  the  stooks  of  corn  are  in  stacks  he'll 
be  taken  from  you,  but  I'll  save  him  if  I  can." 
And  it  was  true  enough  what  she  said,  my  little 
brother  that  was  wearing  a  Llanberis  cap  had  gone 
to  the  field,  and  had  fallen  asleep  on  the  hay  a  few 
days  before.  But  no  harm  happened  him,  and 
he's  all  the  brother  I  have  living  now.  Out  in  the 
stable  she  used  to  go  to  meet  her  people. 

Mrs.  Locke: 

It  was  my  son  was  thatching  Heniff's  house 
when  he  got  the  touch,  and  he  came  back  with  a 
pain  in  his  back  and  in  his  shoulders,  and  took  to 
the  bed.  And  a  few  nights  after  that  I  was  asleep, 
and  the  little  girl  came  and  woke  me  and  said, 
"There's  none  of  us  can  sleep,  with  all  the  cars 
and  carriages  rattling  round  the  house."  But 
though  I  woke  and  heard  her  say  that,  I  fell 
into  a  sound  sleep  again  and  never  woke  till  morn- 
ing. And  one  night  there  came  two  taps  at  the 
window,  one  after  another,  and  we  all  heard  it 
and  no  one  there.  And  at  last  I  sent  the  eldest 
boy  to  Biddy  Early  and  he  found  her  in  the  house. 
She  was  then  married  to  her  fourth  man.  And  she 
said  he  came  a  day  too  soon  and  would  do  nothing 
for  him.  And  he  had  to  walk  away  in  the  rain. 
And  the  next  day  he  went  back  and  she  said, 


Seers  and  Healers  61 

"Three  days  later  and  you'd  have  been  too  late." 
And  she  gave  him  two  bottles,  the  one  he  was  to 
bring  to  a  boundary  water  and  to  fill  it  up,  and 
that  was  to  be  rubbed  to  the  back,  and  the  other 
was  to  drink.  And  the  minute  he  got  them  he  be- 
gan to  get  well,  and  he  left  the  bed  and  could  walk, 
but  he  was  always  delicate.  When  we  rubbed 
his  back  we  saw  a  black  mark,  like  the  bite  of  a 
dog,  and  as  to  his  face,  it  was  as  white  as  a  sheet. 
I  have  the  bottle  here  yet,  though  it's  thirty 
year  ago  I  got  it.  She  bid  the  boy  to  bring  what- 
ever was  left  of  it  to  a  river,  and  to  pour  it  away 
with  the  running  water.  But  when  he  got  well  I 
did  nothing  with  it,  and  said  nothing  about  it — 
and  here  it  is  now  for  you  to  see.  I  never  let  on 
to  Father  Folan  that  I  went  to  her,  but  one  time 
the  Bishop  came,  Maclnerny.  I  knew  he  was  a 
rough  man,  and  I  went  to  him  and  made  my 
confession,  and  I  said,  "  Do  what  you  like  with  me, 
but  I'd  walk  the  world  for  my  son  when  he  was 
sick."  And  all  he  said  was,  "It  would  have  been 
no  wonder  if  the  two  feet  had  been  cut  off  from 
the  messenger."  And  he  said  no  more  and  put 
nothing  on  me. 

There  was  a  boy  I  saw  went  to  Biddy  Early, 
and  she  gave  him  a  bottle  and  told  him  to  mind 
he  did  not  lose  it  in  the  crossing  of  some  road. 
And  when  he  came  to  the  place  it  was  broke. 

Often  I  heard  of  Biddy  Early,  and  I  knew  of  a 


62  Visions  and  Beliefs 

little  girl  was  sick  and  the  brother  went  to  Biddy 
Early  to  ask  would  she  get  well.  And  she  said, 
"They  have  a  place  ready  for  her,  room  for  her 
they  have."  So  he  knew  she  would  die,  and  so 
she  did. 

The  priests  can  do  things  too,  the  same  way  as 
she  could,  for  there  was  one  Mr.  Lyne  was  dying, 
a  Protestant,  and  the  priest  went  in  and  baptized 
him  a  Catholic  before  he  died,  and  he  said  to  the 
people  after,  "He's  all  right  now,  in  another  world." 
And  it  was  more  than  the  baptizing  made  him  sure 
of  that. 

Mrs.  Brennan,  in  the  house  beyond,  went  one 
time  to  Biddy  Early,  where  the  old  man  was  los- 
ing his  health.  And  all  she  told  him  was  to  bid 
him  give  over  drinking  so  much  whiskey.  So 
after  she  said  that,  he  used  only  to  be  drinking  gin. 

There  was  a  boy  went  to  Biddy  Early  for  his 
father,  and  she  said,  "It's  not  any  of  my  business 
that's  on  him,  but  it's  good  for  yourself  that  you 
came  to  me.  Weren'  t  you  sowing  potatoes  in  such  a 
field  one  day  and  didn't  you  find  a  bottle  of  whis- 
key, and  bring  it  away  and  drink  what  was  in  it?" 
And  that  was  true  and  it  must  have  been  a  bottle 
they  brought  out  of  some  cellar  and  dropped  there, 
for  they  can  bring  everything  away,  and  put  in  its 
place  what  will  look  like  it. 

There  was  a  boy  near  Feakle  got  the  touch  in 


Seers  and  Healers  63 

three  places,  and  he  got  a  great  desire  to  go  out 
night-walking,  and  he  got  sick.  And  they  asked 
Biddy  Early  and  she  said,  "  Watch  the  hens  when 
they  come  in  to  roost  at  night,  and  catch  a  hold 
of  the  last  one  that  comes."  So  the  mother 
caught  it,  and  then  she  thought  she'd  like  to  see 
what  would  Biddy  Early  do  with  it.  So  she 
brought  it  up  to  her  house  and  laid  it  on  the  floor, 
and  it  began  to  rustle  its  wings,  and  it  lay  over 
and  died.  It  was  from  her  brother  Biddy  Early 
got  the  cure.  He  was  sick  a  long  time,  and  there 
was  a  whitethorn  tree  out  in  the  field,  and  he'd 
go  and  lie  under  it  for  shade  from  the  sun.  And 
after  he  died,  every  day  for  a  year  she'd  go  to  the 
whitethorn  tree,  and  it  is  there  she'd  cry  her  fill. 
And  then  he  brought  her  under  and  gave  her  the 
cure.  It  was  after  that  she  was  in  service  beyond 
Kinvara.  She  did  her  first  cure  on  a  boy,  after 
the  doctors  giving  him  up. 

An  Old  Man  from  Kinvara: 

My  wife  is  paralysed  these  thirty-six  years, 
and  the  neighbours  said  she'd  get  well  if  the  child 
died,  for  she  got  it  after  her  confinement,  all  in  a 
minute.  But  the  child  died  in  a  year  and  eleven 
months,  and  she  got  no  better.  And  then  they 
said  she'd  get  taken  after  twenty-one  years,  but 
that  passed,  and  she's  just  the  same  way.  And 
she's  as  good  a  Christian  as  any  all  the  time. 

I  went  to  Biddy  Early  one  time  about  her.  She 
was  a  very  old  woman,  all  shaky,  and  the  crankiest 


64  Visions  and  Beliefs 

woman  I  ever  saw.  And  the  husband  was  a  fine 
young  man,  and  he  lying  in  the  bed.  It  was  a 
man  from  Kinvara  half -paralysed  I  brought  with 
me,  and  she  would  do  nothing  for  him  at  first,  and 
then  the  husband  bid  her  do  what  she  could.  So 
she  took  the  bottle  and  shook  it  and  looked  in  it, 
and  she  said  what  was  in  him  was  none  of  her 
business.  And  I  had  work  to  get  him  a  lodging 
that  night  in  Feakle,  for  the  priests  had  all  the 
people  warned  against  letting  any  one  in  that  had 
been  to  her.  She  wouldn't  take  the  whiskey  I 
brought,  but  the  husband  and  myself,  we  opened 
it  and  drank  it  between  us. 

She  gave  me  a  bottle  for  my  wife,  but  when  I  got 
to  the  workhouse,  where  I  had  to  put  her  in  the 
hospital,  they  wouldn't  let  me  through  the  gate 
for  they  heard  where  I  had  been.  So  I  had  to  hide 
the  bottle  for  a  night  by  a  wall,  on  the  grass,  and 
I  sent  my  brother's  wife  to  find  it,  and  to  bring  it 
to  her  in  the  morning  into  the  workhouse.  But 
it  did  her  no  good,  and  Biddy  Early  told  her  after 
it  was  because  I  didn't  bring  it  straight  to  her, 
but  had  left  it  on  the  ground  for  the  night. 

Biddy  Early  beat  all  women.  No  one  could 
touch  her.  I  knew  a  girl,  a  friend  of  my  own,  at 
Burren  and  she  was  sick  a  long  while  and  the  doc- 
tors could  do  nothing  for  her,  and  the  priests  read 
over  her  but  they  could  do  nothing.  And  at  last 
the  husband  went  to  Biddy  Early  and  she  said, 
11 1  can't  cure  her,  and  the  woman  that  can  cure  her 


Seers  and  Healers  65 

lives  in  the  village  with  her."  So  he  went  home 
and  told  this  and  the  women  of  the  village  came 
into  the  house  and  said,  "God  bless  her,"  all  ex- 
cept one,  and  nothing  would  make  her  come  into 
the  house.  But  they  watched  her,  and  one  night 
when  a  lot  of  them  were  sitting  round  the  fire 
smoking,  she  let  a  spit  fall  on  the  floor.  So  they 
gathered  that  up  (with  respects  to  you),  and 
brought  it  in  to  the  sick  woman  and  rubbed  it  to 
her,  and  she  got  well.  It  might  have  done  as  well 
if  they  brought  a  bit  of  her  petticoat  and  burned 
it  and  rubbed  the  ashes  on  her.  But  there's  some- 
thing strange  about  spits,  and  if  you  spit  on  a 
child  or  a  beast  it's  as  good  as  if  you'd  say,  "God 
bless  it." 

John  Curtin: 

I  was  with  Biddy  Early  one  time  for  my  brother. 
She  was  out  away  in  Ennis  when  we  got  to  the 
house,  and  her  husband  that  she  called  Tommy. 
And  the  kitchen  was  full  of  people  waiting  for  her 
to  come  in.  So  then  she  came,  and  the  day  was 
rainy,  and  she  was  wet,  and  she  went  over  to  the 
fire,  and  began  to  take  off  her  clothes,  and  to  dry 
them,  and  then  she  said  to  her  husband:  "Tommy, 
get  the  bottle  and  give  them  all  a  drop. "  So  he 
got  the  bottle  and  gave  a  drink  to  everyone.  But 
my  brother  was  in  behind  the  door,  and  he  missed 
him  and  when  he  came  back  to  the  fire  she  said: 
41  You  have  missed  out  the  man  that  has  the  best 
heart  of  them  all,  and  there  he  is  behind  the  door. " 

VOL.   I. — S 


66  Visions  and  Beliefs 

And  when  my  brother  came  out  she  said,  "  Give  us 
a  verse  of  a  song,"  and  he  said,  "  I'm  no  songster," 
but  she  said,  "I  know  well  that  you  are,  and  a  good 
dancer  as  well. "  She  cured  him  and  his  wife  after. 
There  was  a  neighbour  of  mine  went  to  her  too, 
and  she  said :  ' '  The  first  time  you  got  the  touch  was 
the  day  you  had  brought  a  cart  of  turf  from  that 
bog  at  Ballinabucky  to  Scahanagh.  And  when 
you  were  in  the  road  you  got  it,  and  you  had  to  lie 
down  on  the  creel  of  turf  till  you  got  to  the  public 
road."  And  she  told  him  that  he  had  a  pane  of 
glass  broke  in  his  window  and  that  was  true  enough. 
She  must  have  been  away  walking  with  the  faeries 
every  night  or  how  did  she  know  that,  or  where  the 
village  of  Scahanagh  was? 

Mrs.  Kenny  has  been  twice  to  Biddy  Early. 
Once  for  her  brother  who  was  ill,  and  light-headed 
and  sent  to  Galway.  And  Biddy  Early  shook  the 
bottle  twice,  and  she  said,  "It  is  none  of  my  busi- 
ness, and  it's  a  heavy  cold  that  settled  in  his  head. " 
And  she  would  not  take  the  shilling.  A  red,  red 
woman  she  was. 

Mary  Glyn: 

I  am  a  Clare  woman,  but  the  last  fifty  years  I 
spent  in  Connacht.  Near  Feakle  I  lived,  but  I 
only  saw  Biddy  Early  once,  the  time  she  was 
brought  to  the  committee  and  to  the  courthouse. 
She  lived  in  a  little  house  near  Feakle  that  time, 
and  her  landlord  was  Dr.  Murphy  in  Limerick, 


Seers  and  Healers  67 

and  he  sent  men  to  evict  her  and  to  pull  the  house 
down,  and  she  held  them  in  the  door  and  said: 
11  Whoever  will  be  the  first  to  put  a  bar  to  the  house, 
he'll  remember  it."  And  then  a  man  put  his 
bar  in  between  two  stones,  and  if  he  did,  he  turned 
and  got  a  fall  someway  and  he  broke  the  thigh. 
After  that  Dr.  Murphy  brought  her  to  the  court, 
"Faeries  and  all,"  he  said,  for  he  brought  the 
bottle  along  with  her.  So  she  was  put  out,  but 
Murphy  had  cause  to  remember  it,  for  he  was  liv- 
ing in  a  house  by  himself,  and  one  night  it  caught 
fire  and  was  burned  down,  and  all  that  was  left  of 
him  was  one  foot  that  was  found  in  a  corner  of  the 
walls.  She  had  four  husbands,  and  the  priest 
wouldn't  marry  her  to  the  last  one,  and  it  was  by 
the  teacher  that  she  was  married.  She  was  a 
good-looking  woman,  but  like  another,  the  day  I 
saw  her.  My  husband  went  to  her  the  time 
Johnny,  my  little  boy,  was  dying.  He  had  a  great 
pain  in  his  temple,  and  she  said:  "He  has  enough 
in  him  to  kill  a  hundred ;  but  if  he  lives  till  Monday, 
come  and  tell  me. "  But  he  was  dead  before  that. 
And  she  said,  "If  you  came  to  me  before  this, 
I'd  not  have  let  you  stop  in  that  house  you're  in. " 
But  Johnny  died;  and  there  was  a  blush  over  his 
face  when  he  was  going,  and  after  that  I  couldn't 
look  at  him,  but  those  that  saw  him  said  that  he 
wasn't  in  it.  I  never  saw  him  since,  but  often  and 
often  the  father  would  go  out  thinking  he  might  see 
him.  But  I  know  well  he  wouldn't  like  to  come 
back  and  to  see  me  fretting  for  him. 


68  Visions  and  Beliefs 

We  left  the  house  after  that  and  came  here.  A 
travelling  woman  that  came  in  to  see  me  one  time 
in  that  house  said,  "This  is  a  fine  airy  house, "  and 
she  said  that  three  times,  and  then  she  said,  "  But 
in  that  corner  of  it  you'll  lose  your  son,"  and  so 
it  happened,  and  I  wish  now  that  I  had  minded 
what  she  said.  A  man  and  his  family  went  into 
that  house  after,  and  the  first  summer  they  were  in 
it,  he  and  his  sons  were  putting  up  a  stack  of  hay 
in  the  field  with  pitchforks,  and  the  pitchfork  in 
his  hand  turned  some  way  into  his  stomach  and 
he  died. 

It  is  Biddy  Early  had  the  great  name,  but  the 
priests  were  against  her.  There  went  a  priest  one 
time  to  stop  her,  and  when  he  came  near  the  door 
the  horse  fell  that  was  in  his  car.  Biddy  Early 
came  out  then  and  bid  him  to  give  three  spits  on 
the  horse,  and  he  did  that,  and  it  rose  up  then  and 
there.  It  was  himself  had  put  the  evil  eye  on 
it.  "It  was  yourself  did  it,  you  bodach,"  she 
said  to  the  priest.  And  he  said,  "You  may  do 
what  you  like  from  this  out,  and  I  will  not  meddle 
with  you  again. " 

Mrs.  Crone: 

I  was  myself  digging  potatoes  out  in  that  field 
beyond,  and  a  woman  passed  by  the  road,  but  I 
heard  her  say  nothing,  but  a  pain  came  on  my 
head  and  I  fell  down,  and  I  had  to  go  to  my  bed 
for  three  weeks.     My  mother  went  then  to  Biddy 


Seers  and  Healers  69 

Early.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  her?  And  she  looked 
in  the  blue  bottle  she  had,  and  she  said  my  name. 
And  she  saw  me  standing  before  her,  and  knew  all 
about  me  and  said,  "Your  daughter  was  digging 
potatoes  with  her  husband  in  the  field,  and  a 
woman  passed  by  and  she  said,  '  It  is  as  good  her- 
self is  with  a  spade  as  the  man,'  "  for  I  was  a  young 
woman  at  the  time.  She  gave  my  mother  a  bottle 
for  me,  and  I  took  three  drinks  of  it  in  the  bed, 
and  then  I  got  up  as  well  as  I  was  before. 

Peter  Feeney: 

Biddy  Early  said  to  a  man  that  I  met  in 
America  and  that  went  to  her  one  time,  that  this 
place  between  Finevara  and  Aughanish  is  the  most 
haunted  place  in  all  Ireland. 

Surely  Biddy  Early  was  away  herself.  That's 
what  I  always  heard.  And  I  hear  that  at  a  hurling 
near  Feakle  the  other  day  there  was  a  small  little 
man,  and  they  say  he  was  a  friend  of  hers  and  has 
got  her  gift. 


MRS.   SHERIDAN 

MRS.  SHERIDAN,  as  I  call  her,  was  wrinkled 
and  half  blind,  and  had  gone  barefoot  through 
her  lifetime.  She  was  old,  for  she  had  once  met  Raf- 
tery,  the  Gaelic  poet,  at  a  dance,  and  he  died  before  the 
famine  of  '47.  She  must  have  been  comely  then,  for  he 
had  said  to  her:  "  Well  planed  you  are;  the  carpenter 
that  planed  you  knew  his  trade  ";  and  she  was  ready  of 
reply  and  answered  him  back,  "Better  than  you  know 
yours, "  for  his  fiddle  had  two  or  three  broken  strings. 
And  then  he  had  spoken  of  a  neighbour  in  some  way 
that  vexed  her  father,  and  he  would  let  him  speak  no 
more  with  her.  And  she  had  carried  a  regret  for  this 
through  her  long  life,  for  she  said:  "If  it  wasn't  for 
him  speaking  as  he  did,  and  my  father  getting  vexed, 
he  might  have  made  words  about  me  like  he  did  for 
Mary  Hynes  and  for  Mary  Brown.11  She  had 
never  been  to  school  she  told  me,  because  her  father 
could  not  pay  the  penny  a  week  it  would  have  cost. 
She  had  never  travelled  many  miles  from  the  parish 
of  her  birth,  and  I  am  sure  had  never  seen  pictures 
except  the  sacred  ones  on  chapel  walls;  and  yet  she 
could  tell  of  a  Cromwellian  castle  built  up  and  of  a 
drawbridge  and  of  long-faced,  fair-haired  women,  and 
of  the  yet  earlier  round  house  and  saffron  dress  of 

70 


Seers  and  Healers  71 

the  heroic  times,  I  do  not  know  whether  by  direct 
vision,  or  whether  as  Myers  wrote:  "It  may  even  be 
that  a  World-soul  is  personally  conscious  of  all  its 
past,  and  that  individual  souls,  as  they  enter  into 
deeper  consciousness  enter  into  something  which  is  at 
once  reminiscence  and  actuality.  .  .  .  Past  jacts 
were  known  to  men  on  earth,  not  from  memory  only 
but  by  written  record;  and  these  may  be  records,  of 
what  kind  we  know  not,  which  persist  in  the  spiritual 
world.  Our  retrocognitions  seem  often  a  recovery  of 
isolated  fragments  of  thought  and  feeling,  pebbles 
still  hard  and  rounded  amid  the  indecipherable  sands 
over  which  the  mighty  waters  are  *  rolling  evermore.' " 

She  had  never  heard  of  the  great  mystic  Jacob 
Behmen,  and  yet  when  an  unearthly  visitor  told  her  the 
country  of  youth  is  not  far  from  the  place  where  we 
live,  she  had  come  near  to  his  root  idea  that  "the 
world  standeth  in  Heaven  and  Heaven  in  the  World, 
and  are  in  one  another  as  day  and  night." 


/  was  told  by  Mrs.  Sheridan: 

There  was  a  woman,  Mrs.  Keevan,  killed 
near  the  big  tree  at  Raheen,  and  her  husband 
was  after  that  with  Biddy  Early,  and  she  said 
it  was  not  the  woman  that  had  died  at  all,  but 
a  cow  that  died  and  was  put  in  her  place.  All 
my  life  I've  seen  them  and  enough  of  them. 
One  day  I  was  with  Tom  Mannion  by  the  big 
hole  near  his  house,  and  we  saw  a  man  and  a 
woman  come  from  it,  and  a  great  troop  of  children, 
little  boys  they  seemed  to  be,  and  they  went 
through  the  gate  into  Coole,  and  there  we  could  see 
them  running  and  running  along  the  wall.  And 
I  said  to  Tom  Mannion,  "  It  may  be  a  call  for  one 
of  us."  And  he  said,  "Maybe  it's  for  some  other 
one  it  is. "    But  on  that  day  week  he  was  dead. 

One  time  I  saw  the  old  Colonel  standing  near 
the  road,  I  know  well  it  was  him.  But  while  I  was 
looking  at  him,  he  was  changed  into  the  likeness  of 
an  ass. 

I  was  led  astray  myself  one  day  in  Coole  when 
I  went  to  gather  sticks  for  the  fire.  I  was  making  a 
bundle  of  them,  and  I  saw  a  boy  beside  me,  and  a 
little  grey  dogeen  with  him,  and  at  first  I  thought 
it  was  William  Hanlon,  and  then  I  saw  it  was  not. 
And  he  walked  along  with  me,  and  I  asked  him 

73 


74  Visions  and  Beliefs 

did  he  want  any  of  the  sticks  and  he  said  he  did 
not,  and  he  seemed  as  we  were  walking  to  grow 
bigger  and  bigger.  And  when  he  came  to  where 
the  caves  go  underground  he  stopped,  and  I  asked 
him  his  name,  and  he  said,  "You  should  know  me, 
for  you've  seen  me  often  enough. "  And  then  he 
was  gone,  and  I  know  that  he  was  no  living  thing. 

There  was  a  child  I  had,  and  he  a  year  and  a 
half  old,  and  he  got  a  quinsy  and  a  choking  in  the 
throat  and  I  was  holding  him  in  my  arms  beside 
the  fire,  and  all  in  a  minute  he  died.  And  the  men 
were  working  down  by  the  river,  washing  sheep, 
and  they  heard  the  crying  of  a  child  from  over 
there  in  the  air,  and  they  said,  "That's  Sheridan's 
child. "    So  I  knew  sure  enough  that  he  was  taken. 

Come  here  close  and  I'll  tell  you  what  I  saw  at 
the  old  castle  there  below  (Ballinamantane) .  I  was 
passing  there  in  the  evening  and  I  saw  a  great 
house  and  a  grand  one  with  screens  (clumps  of 
trees)  at  the  ends  of  it,  and  the  windows  open — 
Coole  house  is  nothing  like  what  it  was  for  size  or 
grandeur.  And  there  were  people  inside  and 
ladies  walking  about,  and  a  bridge  across  the  river. 
For  they  can  build  up  such  things  all  in  a  minute. 
And  two  coaches  came  driving  up  and  across  the 
bridge  to  the  castle,  and  in  one  of  them  I  saw  two 
gentlemen,  and  I  knew  them  well  and  both  of 
them  had  died  long  before.  As  to  the  coaches  and 
the  horses  I  didn't  take  much  notice  of  them  for 
I  was  too  much  taken  up  with  looking  at  the  two 
gentlemen.    And  a  man  came  and  called  out  and 


Seers  and  Healers  75 

asked  me  would  I  come  across  the  bridge,  and  I 
said  I  would  not.  And  he  said,  "It  would  be 
better  for  you  if  you  did,  you'd  go  back  heavier 
than  you  came."  I  suppose  they  would  have 
given  me  some  good  thing.  And  then  two  men 
took  up  the  bridge  and  laid  it  against  the  wall. 
Twice  I've  seen  that  same  thing,  the  house  and 
the  coaches  and  the  bridge,  and  I  know  well  I'll 
see  it  a  third  time  before  I  die.     {Note  12.) 

One  time  when  I  was  living  at  Ballymacduff 
there  was  two  little  boys  drowned  in  the  river 
there,  one  was  eight  years  old  and  the  other  eleven 
years.  And  I  was  out  in  the  fields,  and  the  people 
looking  in  the  river  for  their  bodies,  and  I  saw  a 
man  coming  away  from  it,  and  the  two  boys  with 
him,  he  holding  a  hand  of  each  and  leading  them 
away.  And  he  saw  me  stop  and  look  at  them  and 
he  said,  "Take  care  would  you  bring  them  from 
me,  for  you  have  only  one  in  your  own  house,  and 
if  you  take  these  from  me,  she'll  never  come  home 
to  you  again. "  And  one  of  the  little  chaps  broke 
from  his  hand  and  ran  to  me,  and  the  other  cried 
out  to  him,  "Oh,  Pat,  would  you  leave  me!"  So 
then  he  went  back  and  the  man  led  them  away. 
And  then  I  saw  another  man,  very  tall  he  was,  and 
crooked,  and  watching  me  like  this  with  his  head 
down  and  he  was  leading  two  dogs  the  other  way, 
and  I  knew  well  where  he  was  going  and  what  he 
was  going  to  do  with  them. 

And  when  I  heard  the  bodies  were  laid  out,  I 
went  to  the  house  to  have  a  look  at  them,  and  those 


76  Visions  and  Beliefs 

were  never  the  two  boys  that  were  lying  there,  but 
the  two  dogs  that  were  put  in  their  places.  I  knew 
this  by  a  sort  of  stripes  on  the  bodies  such  as  you'd 
see  in  the  covering  of  a  mattress;  and  I  knew  the 
boys  couldn't  be  in  it,  after  me  seeing  them  led 
away. 

And  it  was  at  that  time  I  lost  my  eye,  something 
came  on  it,  and  I  never  got  the  sight  again.  All 
my  life  I've  seen  them  and  enough  of  them.  One 
time  I  saw  one  of  the  fields  below  full  of  them,  some 
were  picking  up  stones  and  some  were  ploughing 
it  up.  But  the  next  time  I  went  by  there  was  no 
sign  of  it  being  ploughed  at  all.  They  can  do 
nothing  without  some  live  person  is  looking  at 
them,  that's  why  they  were  always  so  much  after 
me.  Even  when  I  was  a  child  I  could  see  them, 
and  once  they  took  my  walk  from  me,  and  gave 
me  a  bad  foot,  and  my  father  cured  me,  and  if  he 
did,  in  five  days  after  he  died. 

But  there's  no  harm  at  all  in  them,  not  much 
harm. 

There  was  a  woman  lived  near  me  at  Bally- 
macduff,  and  she  used  to  go  about  to  attend 
women;  Sarah  Redington  was  her  name.  And  she 
was  brought  away  one  time  by  a  man  that  came 
for  her  into  a  hill,  through  a  door,  but  she  didn't 
know  where  the  hill  was.  And  there  were  people 
in  it,  and  cradles  and  a  woman  in  labour,  and  she 
helped  her  and  the  baby  was  born,  and  the  woman 
told  her  it  was  only  that  night  she  was  brought 


Seers  and  Healers  77 

away.  And  the  man  led  her  out  again  and  put  her 
in  the  road  near  her  home  and  he  gave  her  some- 
thing rolled  in  a  bag,  and  he  bid  her  not  to  look  at 
it  till  she'd  get  home,  and  to  throw  the  first  handful 
of  it  away  from  her.  But  she  wouldn't  wait  to  get 
home  to  look  at  it,  and  she  took  it  off  her  back  and 
opened  it,  and  there  was  nothing  in  it  but  cow- 
dung.  And  the  man  came  to  her  and  said,  "You 
have  us  near  destroyed  looking  in  that,  and  we'll 
never  bring  you  in  again  among  us. " 

There  was  a  man  I  know  well  was  away  with 
them,  often  and  often,  and  he  was  passing  one  day 
by  the  big  tree  and  they  came  about  him  and  he  had 
a  new  pair  of  breeches*  on,  and  one  of  them  came 
and  made  a  slit  in  them,  and  another  tore  a  little 
bit  out,  and  then  they  all  came  running  and  tearing 
little  bits  till  he  hadn't  a  rag  left.  Just  to  be  hum- 
bugging him  they  did  that.  And  they  gave  him 
good  help,  for  he  had  but  an  acre  of  land,  and  he 
had  as  much  on  it  as  another  would  have  on  a  big 
farm.  But  his  wife  didn't  like  him  to  be  going  and 
some  one  told  her  of  a  cure  for  him,  and  she  said 
she'd  try  it  and  if  she  did,  within  two  hours  after 
she  was  dead;  killed  they  had  her  before  she'd 
try  it.  He  used  to  say  that  where  he  was  brought 
was  into  a  round  very  big  house,  and  Cairns  that 
went  with  them  told  me  the  same.     {Note  13.) 

Three  times  when  I  went  for  water  to  the  well, 
the  water  spilled  over  me,  and  I  told  Bridget  after 
that  they  must  bring  the  water  themselves,  I'd 
go  for  it  no  more.    And  the  third  time  it  was  done 


78  Visions  and  Beliefs 

there  was  a  boy,  one  of  the  HenifTs,  was  near,  and 
when  he  heard  what  happened  me  he  said,  "It 
must  have  been  the  woman  that  was  at  the  well 
along  with  you  that  did  that. "  And  I  said  there 
was  no  woman  at  the  well  along  with  me.  "There 
was,"  said  he;  "I  saw  her  there  beside  you,  and 
the  two  little  tins  in  her  hand." 

One  day  after  I  came  to  live  here  at  Coole,  a 
strange  woman  came  into  the  house,  and  I  asked 
what  was  her  name  and  she  said,  "I  was  in  it  before 
ever  you  were  in  it, "  and  she  went  into  the  room 
inside  and  I  saw  her  no  more. 

But  Bridget  and  Peter  saw  her  coming  in,  and 
they  asked  me  who  she  was,  for  they  never  saw  her 
before.  And  in  the  night  when  I  was  sleeping  at 
the  foot  of  the  bed,  she  came  and  threw  me  out  on 
the  floor,  that  the  joint  of  my  arm  has  a  mark  in  it 
yet.  And  every  night  she  came,  and  she'd  spite 
me  or  annoy  me  in  some  way.  And  at  last  we  got 
Father  Nolan  to  come  and  to  drive  her  out.  And 
as  soon  as  he  began  to  read,  there  went  out  of  the 
house  a  great  blast,  and  there  was  a  sound  as  loud 
as  thunder.  And  Father  Nolan  said,  "It's  well  for 
you  she  didn't  have  you  killed  before  she  went. " 

There's  something  that's  not  right  about  an  old 
cat  and  it's  well  not  to  annoy  them.  I  was  in  the 
house  one  night,  and  one  came  in,  and  he  tried  to 
bring  away  the  candle  that  was  lighted  in  the 
candlestick,  and  it  standing  on  the  table.  And  I 
had  a  little  rod  beside  me,  and  I  made  a  hit  at  him 


Seers  and  Healers  79 

with  it,  and  with  that  he  dropped  the  candle  and 
made  at  me  as  if  to  tear  me.  And  I  went  on  my 
knees  and  asked  his  pardon  three  times,  and  when 
I  asked  it  the  third  time  he  got  quiet  all  of  a 
minute,  and  went  out  at  the  door. 

And  as  to  hares — bid  Master  Robert  never  to 
shoot  a  hare,  for  you  wouldn't  know  what  might 
be  in  it.  There  were  two  women  I  knew,  mother 
and  daughter,  and  they  died.  And  one  day  I  was 
out  by  the  wood,  and  I  saw  two  hares  sitting  by  the 
wall,  and  the  minute  I  saw  them  I  knew  well  who 
they  were.  And  the  mother  made  as  though  she'd 
kill  me,  but  the  daughter  stopped  her.  Bad  they 
must  have  been  to  have  been  put  into  that  shape, 
and  indeed  I  know  that  they  weren't  too  good.  I 
saw  the  mother  another  time  come  up  near  the 
door  as  if  to  see  me,  and  when  she  got  near,  she 
turned  herself  into  a  red  hare. 

The  priests  can  do  cures  out  of  their  book,  and 
the  time  the  cure  is  done  is  when  they  turn  the 
second  leaf.  There  was  a  boy  near  Kinvara  got  a 
hurt  and  he  was  brought  into  a  house  and  Father 
Grogan  was  got  to  do  a  cure  on  him.  And  he  did 
it,  and  within  two  days  the  priest's  brother  was 
made  a  fool  of,  and  is  locked  up  in  a  madhouse 
ever  since,  and  it  near  seven  years  ago.    {Note  14.) 

There  was  a  boy  of  the  N ally's  died  near  a  year 
ago;  and  when  I  heard  he  was  dead  I  went  down 
to  the  house,  and  there  I  saw  him  outside  and  two 
men  bringing  him  away,  and  one  of  them  said  to 
me,  "We  couldn't  do  this  but  for  you  being  there 


80  Visions  and  Beliefs 

watching  us. "    That's  the  last  time  I  saw  any  of 
them. 

There  was  a  boy  got  a  fall  from  a  cart  near  the 
house  beyond,  and  he  was  brought  in  to  Mrs. 
Raynor's  and  laid  in  the  bed  and  I  went  in  to  see 
him.  And  he  said  what  he  saw  was  a  little  boy 
run  across  the  road  before  the  cart,  and  the  horse 
took  fright  and  ran  away  and  threw  him  from  it. 
And  he  asked  to  be  brought  to  my  house,  for  he 
wouldn't  stop  where  he  was;  "for"  says  he,  "the 
woman  of  this  house  gave  me  no  drink  and  showed 
me  no  kindness,  and  she'll  be  repaid  for  that." 
And  sure  enough  within  the  year  she  got  the  dropsy 
and  died.  And  he  was  carried  out  of  the  door 
backwards,  but  the  mother  brought  him  to  her 
own  house  and  wouldn't  let  him  come  to  mine,  and 
'twas  as  well,  for  I  wouldn't  refuse  him,  but  I  don't 
want  to  be  annoyed  with  them  any  more  than  I  am. 

Did  you  know  Mrs.  Byrne  that  lived  in  Doolin? 
Swept  she  was  after  her  child  was  born.  And  near 
a  year  after  I  saw  her  coming  down  the  road  near 
the  old  castle.  "Is  that  you,  Mary?"  I  said  to 
her,  "and  is  it  to  see  me  you  are  coming?"  But 
she  went  on.  It  was  in  May  when  they  are  all 
changing.  {Note  15.)  There  was  a  priest,  Father 
Waters,  told  me  one  time  that  he  was  after  burying 
a  boy,  one  Fahy,  in  Kilbecanty  churchyard.  And 
he  was  passing  by  the  place  again  in  the  evening, 
and  there  he  saw  a  great  fire  burning,  but  whether 
it  was  of  turf  or  of  sticks  he  couldn't  tell,  and  there 


Seers  and  Healers  81 

was  the  boy  he  had  buried  sitting  in  the  middle  of 
it. 

I  know  that  I  used  to  be  away  among  them 
myself,  but  how  they  brought  me  I  don't  know, 
but  when  I'd  come  back,  I'd  be  cross  with  the 
husband  and  with  all.  I  believe  when  I  was  with 
them  I  was  cross  that  they  wouldn't  let  me  go, 
and  that's  why  they  didn't  keep  me  altogether, 
they  didn't  like  cross  people  to  be  with  them. 
The  husband  would  ask  me  where  I  was,  and 
why  I  stopped  so  long  away,  but  I  think  he  knew 
I  was  taken  and  it  fretted  him,  but  he  never  spoke 
much  about  it.  But  my  mother  knew  it  well,  but 
she'd  try  to  hide  it.  The  neighbours  would  come 
in  and  ask  where  was  I,  and  she'd  say  I  was  sick 
in  the  bed — for  whatever  was  put  there  in  place  of 
me  would  have  the  head  in  under  the  bed-clothes. 
And  when  a  neighbour  would  bring  me  in  a  drink 
of  milk,  my  mother  would  put  it  by  and  say, 
"  Leave  her  now,  maybe  she'll  drink  it  tomorrow." 
And  maybe  in  a  day  or  two  I'd  meet  someone  and 
he'd  say,  "Why  wouldn't  you  speak  tome  when  I 
went  into  the  house  to  see  you?"  And  I  was  a 
young  fresh  woman  at  that  time.  Where  they 
brought  me  to  I  don't  know,  or  how  I  got  there, 
but  I'd  be  in  a  very  big  house,  and  it  round,  the 
walls  far  away  that  you'd  hardly  see  them,  and  a 
great  many  people  all  round  about.  I  saw  there 
neighbours  and  friends  that  I  knew,  and  they  in 
their  own  clothing  and  with  their  own  appearance, 
but  they  wouldn't  speak  to  me  nor  I  to  them,  and 

VOL.    I — 6 


82  Visions  and  Beliefs 

when  I'd  meet  them  again  I'd  never  say  to  them 
that  I  saw  them  there.  But  the  others  had  striped 
clothes  of  all  colours,  and  long  faces,  and  they'd  be 
talking  and  laughing  and  moving  about.  What 
language  had  they?  Irish  of  course,  what  else 
would  they  talk? 

And  there  was  one  woman  of  them,  very  tall  and 
with  a  long  face,  standing  in  the  middle,  taller 
than  any  one  you  ever  saw  in  this  world,  and  a 
tall  stick  in  her  hand;  she  was  the  mistress.  She 
had  a  high  yellow  thing  on  her  head,  not  hair,  her 
hair  was  turned  back  under  it,  and  she  had  a  long 
yellow  cloak  down  to  her  feet  and  hanging  down 
behind.  Had  she  anything  like  that  in  the  picture 
in  her  hand?  [a  crown  of  gold  balls  or  apples.]  It 
was  not  on  her  head,  it  was  lower  down  here  about 
the  body,  and  shining,  and  a  thing  [a  brooch]  like 
that  in  the  picture,  but  down  hanging  low  like  the 
other.  And  that  picture  you  have  there  in  your 
hand,  I  saw  no  one  like  it,  but  I  saw  a  picture  like 
it  hanging  on  the  wall.  {Note  16.)  It  was  a  very 
big  place  and  very  grand,  and  a  long  table  set 
out,  but  I  didn't  want  to  stop  there  and  I  began 
crying  to  go  home.  And  she  touched  me  here  in  the 
breast  with  her  stick,  she  was  vexed  to  see  me 
wanting  to  go  away.  They  never  brought  me 
away  since.  Grand  food  they'd  offer  me  and  wine, 
but  I  never  would  touch  it,  and  sometimes  I'd 
have  to  give  the  breast  to  a  child. 

Himself  died,  but  it  was  they  took  him  from  me. 
It  was  in  the  night  and  he  lying  beside  me,  and  I 


Seers  and  Healers  83 

woke  and  heard  him  move,  and  I  thought  I  heard 
some  one  with  him.  And  I  put  out  my  hand  and 
what  I  touched  was  an  iron  hand,  like  knitting 
needles  it  felt.  And  I  heard  the  bones  of  his  neck 
crack,  and  he  gave  a  sort  of  a  choked  laugh,  and  I 
got  out  of  the  bed  and  struck  a  light  and  I  saw 
nothing,  but  I  thought  I  saw  some  one  go  through 
the  door.  And  I  called  to  Bridget  and  she  didn't 
come,  and  I  called  again  and  she  came  and  she 
said  she  struck  a  light  when  she  heard  the  noise 
and  was  coming,  and  someone  came  and  struck 
the  light  from  her  hand.  And  when  we  looked 
in  the  bed,  himself  was  lying  dead  and  not  a  mark 
on  him. 

There  was  a  woman,  Mrs.  Leary,  had  something 
wrong  with  her,  and  she  went  to  Biddy  Early.  And 
nothing  would  do  her  but  to  bring  my  son  along 
with  her,  and  I  was  vexed.  What  call  had  she  to 
bring  him  with  her?  And  when  Biddy  Early  saw 
him  she  said,  "You'll  travel  far,  but  wherever  you 
go  you'll  not  escape  them. "  The  woman  he  went 
up  with  died  about  six  months  after,  but  he  went  to 
America,  and  he  wasn't  long  there  when  what  was 
said  came  true,  and  he  died.  They  followed  him  as 
far  as  he  went. 

And  one  day  since  then  I  was  on  the  road  to 
Gort,  and  Madden  said  tome,  "Your  son's  on  the 
road  before  you."  And  I  said,  "How  could  that 
be,  and  he  dead?  "  But  still  I  hurried  on.  And  at 
Coole  gate  I  met  a  little  boy  and  I  asked  did  he 


84  Visions  and  Beliefs 

see  any  one  and  he  said,  "You  know  well  who 
I  saw."     But  I  got  no  sight  of  him  at  all  myself. 

I  saw  the  coach  one  night  near  Kiltartan  Chapel. 
Long  it  was  and  black,  and  I  saw  no  one  in  it. 
But  I  saw  who  was  sitting  up  driving  it,  and  I 
knew  it  to  be  one  of  the  Miskells  that  was  taken 
before  that.     {Note  17.) 

One  day  I  was  following  the  goat  to  get  a  sup 
of  milk  from  her,  and  she  turned  into  the  field 
and  up  into  the  castle  of  Lydican  and  went  up 
from  step  to  step  up  the  stairs  to  the  top,  and  I 
followed  and  on  the  stairs  a  woman  passed  me, 
and  I  knew  her  to  be  Colum's  wife.  And  when 
we  got  to  the  room  at  the  top,  I  looked  up,  and 
there  standing  on  the  wall  was  a  woman  looking 
down  at  me,  long-faced  and  tall  and  with  grand 
clothes,  and  on  her  head  something  yellow  and 
slippery,  not  hair  but  like  marble.  {Note  18.) 
And  I  called  out  to  ask  her  wasn't  she  afraid  to  be 
up  there,  and  she  said  she  was  not.  And  a  shep- 
herd that  used  to  live  below  in  the  castle  saw 
the  same  woman  one  night  he  went  up  to  the 
top,  and  a  room  and  a  fire  and  she  sitting  by  it, 
but  when  he  went  there  again  there  was  no  sign 
of  her  nor  of  the  room,  nothing  but  the  stones  as 
before. 

I  never  saw  them  on  horses;  but  when  I  came 
to  live  at  Peter  Mahony's  he  used  to  bring  in 
those    red    flowers  [ragweed]  that  grow  by   the 


Seers  and  Healers  85 

railway,  when  their  stalks  were  withered,  to  make 
the  fire.  And  one  day  I  was  out  in  the  road,  and 
two  men  came  over  to  me  and  one  was  wearing 
a  long  grey  dress.  And  he  said  to  me,  "  We  have 
no  horses  to  ride  on  and  have  to  go  on  foot,  because 
you  have  too  much  fire."  So  then  I  knew  it  was 
their  horses  we  were  burning.     (Note  19.) 

I  know  the  cure  for  anything  they  can  do  to  you, 
but  it's  few  I'd  tell  it  to.  It  was  a  strange  woman 
came  in  and  told  it  to  me,  and  I  never  saw  her 
again.  She  bid  me  spit  and  use  the  spittle,  or  to 
take  a  graineen  of  dust  from  the  navel,  and  that's 
what  you  should  do  if  any  one  you  care  for  gets  a 
cold  or  a  shivering,  or  they  put  anything  upon  him. 

One  time  I  went  up  to  a  forth  beyond  Raheen 
to  pick  up  a  few  sticks,  and  I  was  beating  one  of  the 
sticks  on  the  ground  to  break  it,  and  a  voice  said 
from  below,  "Is  it  to  break  down  the  house  you 
want?"  And  a  thing  appeared  that  was  like  a  cat, 
but  bigger  than  any  cat  ever  was.  And  another 
time  in  a  forth  a  man  said,  "Here's  gold  for  you, 
but  don't  look  at  it  till  you  go  home."  And  I 
looked  and  I  saw  horse-dung  and  I  said,  "Keep  it 
yourself,  much  good  may  it  do  you."  They  never 
gave  me  anything  did  me  good,  but  a  good  deal 
of  torment  I  had  from  them.  And  they're  often 
walking  the  road,  and  if  you  met  them  you 
wouldn't  know  them  from  any  other  person;  but 
I'd  know  them  well  enough,  but  I'd  say  nothing — 


86  Visions  and  Beliefs 

and  that's  a  grand  bush  we're  passing  by — whether 
it  belongs  to  them  I  don't  know,  but  wherever 
they  get  shelter,  there  they  might  be — but  anyway 
it's  a  very  fine  bush — God  bless  it. 

And  when  you  speak  of  them  you  should  always 
say  the  day  of  the  week.  Maybe  you  didn't  notice 
that  I  said,  "This  is  Friday"  just  when  we  were 
hardly  in  at  the  gate. 

It's  very  weak  I  am,  and  took  to  my  bed  since 
yesterday.  They've  changed  now  out  of  where 
they  were  near  the  castle,  and  it's  inside  Coole 
demesne  they  are.  It  was  an  old  man  told  me  that, 
I  met  him  on  the  road  there  below.  First  I  thought 
he  was  a  young  man,  and  then  I  saw  he  was  not, 
and  he  grew  very  nice-looking  after,  and  he  had 
plaid  clothes.  "We're  moved  out  of  that  now," 
he  said,  "and  it's  strangers  will  be  coming  in  it. 
And  you  ought  to  know  me, "  he  said.  And  when 
I  looked  at  him  I  thought  I  did. 

And  one  day  I  was  down  in  Coole  I  saw  their 
house,  more  like  a  big  dairy,  with  red  tiles  and  a 
high  chimney  and  a  lot  of  smoke  out  of  it,  and 
there  was  a  woman  at  the  door  and  two  or  three 
outside.  But  they'll  do  you  no  harm,  for  the  man 
told  me  so.  "They  needn't  be  afraid,"  he  said, 
"we're  good  neighbours,  but  let  them  not  say  too 
much  if  the  milk  might  go  from  the  cows  now  and 
again. " 

I  was  over  beyond  Raheen  one  time,  and  I  saw 
a  woman  milking  and  she  at  the  wrong  side  of  the 


Seers  and  Healers  87 

cow.  And  when  she  saw  me  she  got  up,  and  she 
had  a  bucket  that  was  like  a  plate,  and  it  full  of 
milk  and  she  gave  it  to  a  man  that  was  waiting 
there,  that  I  thought  first  was  one  of  the  O'Heas, 
and  they  went  away.  And  the  cow  was  a  grand 
fine  one,  but  who  it  belonged  to  I  didn't  know — 
maybe  to  themselves. 

It's  about  a  week  ago  one  night  some  one  came 
into  the  room  in  the  dark,  and  I  saw  it  was  my 
son  that  I  lost — he  that  went  to  America — James. 
He  didn't  die,  he  was  whipped  away — I  knew  he 
wasn't  dead,  for  I  saw  him  one  day  on  the  road  to 
Gort  on  a  coach,  and  he  looked  down  and  he  said, 
1 '  That's  my  poor  mother. "  And  when  he  came  in 
here,  I  couldn't  see  him,  but  I  knew  him  by  his 
talk.  And  he  said,  "It's  asleep  she  is,"  and  he 
put  his  two  hands  on  my  face  and  I  never  stirred. 
And  he  said,  "I'm  not  far  from  you  now."  For 
he  is  with  the  others  inside  Coole  near  where  the 
river  goes  down  the  swallow  hole.  To  see  me  he 
came,  and  I  think  he'll  be  apt  to  come  again  before 
long.  And  last  night  there  was  a  light  about  my 
head  all  the  night  and  no  candle  in  the  room  at  all. 

Yes,  the  Sidhe  sing,  and  they  have  pipers  among 
them,  a  bag  on  each  side  and  a  pipe  to  the  mouth, 
I  think  I  never  told  you  of  one  I  saw. 

I  was  passing  a  field  near  Kiltartan  one  time 
when  I  was  a  girl,  where  there  was  a  little  lisheen, 
and  a  field  of  wheat,  and  when  I  was  passing  I 


88  Visions  and  Beliefs 

heard  a  piper  beginning  to  play,  and  I  couldn't 
but  begin  to  dance,  it  was  such  a  good  tune;  and 
there  was  a  boy  standing  there,  and  he  began  to 
dance  too.  And  then  my  father  came  by,  and  he 
asked  why  were  we  dancing,  and  no  one  playing 
for  us.  And  I  said  there  was,  and  I  began  to 
search  through  the  wheat  for  the  piper,  but  I 
couldn't  find  him,  and  I  heard  a  voice  saying, 
"  You'll  see  me  yet,  and  it  will  be  in  a  town. "  Well, 
one  Christmas  eve  I  was  in  Gort  and  my  husband 
with  me,  and  that  night  at  Gort  I  heard  the  same 
tune  beginning  again — the  grandest  I  ever  heard — 
and  I  couldn't  but  begin  to  dance.  And  Glynn  the 
chair-maker  heard  it  too,  and  he  began  to  dance 
with  me  in  the  street,  and  my  man  thought  I  had 
gone  mad,  and  the  people  gathered  round  us,  for 
they  could  see  or  hear  nothing.  But  I  saw  the 
piper  well,  and  he  had  plaid  clothes,  blue  and  white, 
and  he  said,  "Didn't  I  tell  you  that  when  I  saw 
you  again  it  would  be  in  a  town?  " 

I  never  saw  fire  go  up  in  the  air,  but  in  the 
wood  beyond  the  tree  at  Raheen  I  used  often  to 
see  like  a  door  open  at  night,  and  the  light  shining 
through  it,  just  as  it  might  shine  through  the  house 
door,  with  the  candle  and  the  fire  inside,  if  it  would 
be  left  open. 

Many  of  them  I  have  seen — they  are  like  our- 
selves only  wearing  bracket  clothes  {Note  20), 
and  their  bodies  are  not  so  strong  or  so  thick  as 
ours,  and  their  eyes  are  more  shining  than  our  eyes. 


Seers  and  Healers  89 

I  don't  see  many  of  them  here,  but  Coole  is 
alive  with  them,  as  plenty  as  grass;  I  often  go 
awhile  and  sit  inside  the  gate  there.  I  saw  them 
make  up  a  house  one  time  near  the  natural  bridge, 
and  I  saw  them  coming  over  the  gap  twice  near 
the  chapel,  a  lot  of  little  boys,  and  two  men 
and  a  woman,  and  they  had  old  talk  and  young 
talk.  One  of  them  came  in  here  twice,  and  I  gave 
him  a  bit  of  bread,  but  he  said,  "There's  salt  in 
it"  and  he  put  it  away.     (Note  21.) 

When  Annie  Rivers  died  the  other  day,  there 
were  two  funerals  in  it,  a  big  funeral  with  a  new 
coffin  and  another  that  was  in  front  of  them,  men 
walking,  the  handsomest  I  ever  saw,  and  they 
with  black  clothes  about  their  body.  I  was  out 
there  looking  at  them,  and  there  was  a  cow  in  the 
road,  and  I  said,  "Take  care  would  you  drive 
away  the  cow."  And  one  of  them  said,  "No  fear 
of  that,  we  have  plenty  of  cows  on  the  other  side 
of  the  wall'1  But  no  one  could  see  them  but 
myself.  I  often  saw  them  and  it  was  they  took  the 
sight  of  my  eyes  from  me.  And  Annie  Rivers  was 
not  in  the  grand  coffin,  she  was  with  them  a  good 
while  before  the  funeral. 

That  time  I  saw  the  two  funerals  at  Rivers' s 
that  I  was  telling  you  about,  I  heard  Annie  call 
to  those  that  were  with  her,  "You  might  as  well 
let  me  have  Bartley ;  it  would  be  better  for  the  two 
castles  to  meet."    And  since  then  the  mother  is 


90  Visions  and  Beliefs 

uneasy  about  Bartley,  and  he  fell  on  the  floor  one 
day  and  I  know  well  he  is  gone  since  the  day 
Annie  was  buried.  And  I  saw  others  at  the  funeral, 
and  some  that  you  knew  well  among  them.  And 
look  now,  you  should  send  a  coat  to  some  poor 
person,  and  your  own  friends  among  the  dead  will 
be  covered,  for  you  could  see  the  skin  here.  [She 
made  a  gesture  passing  her  hand  down  each  arm, 
exactly  the  same  gesture  as  old  Mary  Glynn  of  Slieve 
Echtge  had  made  yesterday  when  she  said,  "Have 
you  a  coat  you  could  send  me,  for  my  arms  are 
bare?  "  and  I  had  promised  her  one] 

Would  I  have  gone  among  them  if  I  had  died 
last  month?  I  think  not.  I  think  that  I  have  lived 
my  time  out,  since  my  father  was  taken. 

He  was  a  young  man  at  that  time,  and  one  time 
I  was  out  in  the  field,  and  I  got  a  knock  on  the 
foot,  and  a  lump  rose;  there  is  the  mark  of  it  yet. 
It  was  after  that  I  was  on  the  road  with  my  father, 
near  Kinvara,  and  a  man  came  and  began  to 
beat  him.  And  I  thought  that  he  was  going  to 
beat  me,  and  I  got  in  near  the  wall  and  my  father 
said,  "Spare  the  girl!"  "I  will  do  that,  I  will 
spare  her,"  said  the  man.  He  went  away  then, 
and  within  a  week  my  father  was  dead. 

And  my  mother  told  me  that  before  the  burying, 
she  saw  the  corpse  on  the  bed,  sitting  on  the  side 
of  the  bed,  and  his  feet  hanging  down.  I  saw  my 
father  often  since  then,  but  not  this  good  while  now. 
He  had  always  a  young  appearance  when  I  saw  him, 


Seers  and  Healers  91 

A  big  woman  came  to  the  window  and  looked 
in  at  me,  the  time  I  was  on  the  bed  lately.  "Rise 
up  out  of  that, "  she  said.  I  saw  her  another  time 
on  the  road,  and  the  wind  blew  her  dress  open,  and 
I  could  see  that  she  had  nothing  at  all  on  under- 
neath it. 

In  May  they  are  as  thick  everywhere  as  the 
grass,  but  there's  no  fear  at  all  for  you  or  for  Master 
Robert.    I  know  that,  for  one  told  it  to  me. 

"Tir-nan-og"  that  is  not  far  from  us.  One 
time  I  was  in  the  chapel  at  Labane,  and  there  was  a 
tall  man  sitting  next  me,  and  he  dressed  in  grey, 
and  after  the  Mass  I  asked  him  where  he  came 
from.  "From  Tir-nan-og,"  says  he.  "And  where 
is  that? "  I  asked  him.  "It's  not  far  from  you, "  he 
said;  "it's  near  the  place  where  you  live."  I 
remember  well  the  look  of  him  and  him  telling  me 
that.  The  priest  was  looking  at  us  while  we  were 
talking  together.     {Note  22.) 

She  died  some  years  ago  and  I  am  told:^ 
"There  is  a  ghost  in  Mrs.  Sheridan's  house. 
They  got  a  priest  to  say  Mass  there,  but  with  all  that 
there  is  not  one  in  it  has  leave  to  lay  a  head  on  the 
pillow  till  such  time  as  the  cock  crows." 


MR.  SAGGARTON 

/WAS  told  one  day  by  our  doctor,  a  good  fowler  and 
physician,  now,  alas,  passed  away,  of  an  old 
man  in  Clare  who  had  knowledge  of  "the  Others," 
and  I  took  Mr.  Yeats  to  see  him. 

We  found  him  in  his  hay  field,  and  he  took  us  to  his 
thatched  lime-white  house  and  told  us  many  things. 
A  little  later  we  went  there  again  to  verify  what  I  had 
put  down.  I  remember  him  as  very  gentle  and  cour- 
teous, and  that  a  cloth  was  spread  and  tea  made  for 
us  by  his  daughters,  he  himself  sitting  at  the  head  of 
the  table. 

Mr.  Yeats  at  that  time  wore  black  clothes  and  a 
soft  black  hat,  but  gave  them  up  later,  because  he  was 
so  often  saluted  as  a  priest.  But  this  time  another 
view  was  taken,  and  I  was  told  after  a  while  that  the 
curate  of  the  Clare  parish  had  written  to  the  curate  of 
a  Connacht  parish  that  Lady  Gregory  had  come 
over  the  border  with  "a  Scripture  Reader"  to  try 
and  buy  children  for  proselytizing  purposes.  But  the 
Connacht  curate  had  written  back  to  the  Clare  curate 
that  he  had  always  thought  him  a  fool,  and  now  he 
was  sure  of  it. 


92 


The  old  man  I  have  called  Mr.  Saggarton  said: 
Our  family  diminished  very  much  till  at  last 
there  were  but  three  brothers  left,  and  they  sepa- 
rated. One  went  to  Ennis  and  another  came  here 
and  the  other  to  your  own  place  beyond.  It  was  a 
long  time  before  they  could  make  one  another  out 
again.  It  was  my  uncle  used  to  go  away  among 
them.  When  I  was  a  young  chap,  I'd  go  out  in  the 
field  working  with  him,  and  he'd  bid  me  go  away 
on  some  message,  and  when  I'd  come  back  it  might 
be  in  a  faint  I'd  find  him.  It  was  he  himself  was 
taken ;  it  was  but  his  shadow  or  some  thing  in  his 
likeness  was  left  behind.  He  was  a  very  strong 
man.  You  might  remember  Ger  Kelly  what  a 
strong  man  he  was,  and  stout,  and  six  feet  two 
inches  in  height.  Well,  he  and  my  uncle  had  a 
dispute  one  time,  and  he  made  as  if  to  strike  at 
him,  and  my  uncle,  without  so  much  as  taking  off 
his  coat,  gave  one  blow  that  stretched  him  on  the 
floor.  And  at  the  barn  at  Bunahowe  he  and  my 
father  could  throw  a  hundred  weight  over  the 
collar  beam,  what  no  other  could  do.  {Note  23.) 
My  father  had  no  notion  at  all  of  managing  things. 
He  lived  to  be  eighty  years,  and  all  his  life  he 
looked  as  innocent  as  that  little  chap  turning  the 
hay.  My  uncle  had  the  same  innocent  look;  I 
think  they  died  quite  happy. 

93 


94  Visions  and  Beliefs 

One  time  the  wife  got  a  touch,  and  she  got  it 
again,  and  the  third  time  she  got  up  in  the  morning 
and  went  out  of  the  house  and  never  said  where 
she  was  going.  But  I  had  her  watched,  and  I  told 
the  boy  to  follow  her  and  never  to  lose  sight  of 
her,  and  I  gave  him  the  sign  to  make  if  he'd  meet 
any  bad  thing.  So  he  followed  her,  and  she  kept 
before  him,  and  while  he  was  going  along  the  road 
something  was  up  on  top  of  the  wall  with  one 
leap — a  red-haired  man  it  was,  with  no  legs  and 
with  a  thin  face.  (Note  24.)  But  the  boy  made 
the  sign  and  got  hold  of  him  and  carried  him  till 
he  got  to  the  bridge.  At  the  first  he  could  not  lift 
the  man,  but  after  he  made  the  sign  he  was 
quite  light.  And  the  woman  turned  home  again, 
and  never  had  a  touch  after.  It's  a  good  job 
the  boy  had  been  taught  the  sign.  Make  that 
sign  with  your  thumbs  if  ever  when  you're  walking 
out  you  feel  a  sort  of  a  shivering  in  the  skin,  for 
that  shows  there's  some  bad  thing  near,  but  if 
you  hold  your  hands  like  that,  if  you  went  into  a 
forth  itself,  it  couldn't  harm  you.  And  if  you 
should  any  time  feel  a  sort  of  a  pain  in  your  little 
finger,  the  surest  thing  is  to  touch  it  with  human 
dung.  Don't  neglect  that,  for  if  they're  glad  to 
get  one  of  us,  they'd  be  seven  times  better  pleased 
to  get  the  like  of  you. 

Youngsters  they  take  mostly  to  do  work  for 
them,  and  they  are  death  on  handsome  people, 
for  they  are  handsome  themselves.  To  all  sorts 
of  work  they  put  them,  and  digging  potatoes  and 


Seers  and  Healers  95 

the  like,  and  they  have  wine  from  foreign  parts, 
and  cargoes  of  gold  coming  in  to  them.  Their 
houses  are  ten  times  more  beautiful  and  ten  times 
grander  than  any  house  in  this  world.  And  they 
could  build  one  of  them  up  in  that  field  in  ten  min- 
utes. Clothes  of  all  colours  they  wear,  and  crowns 
like  that  one  in  the  picture,  and  of  other  shapes. 
{Note  25.)  They  have  different  queens,  not  always 
the  same.  The  people  they  bring  away  must  die 
some  day;  as  to  themselves,  they  were  living  from 
past  ages,  and  they  can  never  die  till  the  time  when 
God  has  His  mind  made  up  to  redeem  them. 

And  those  they  bring  away  are  always  glad  to  be 
brought  back  again.  If  you  were  to  bring  a  heifer 
from  those  mountains  beyond  and  to  put  it  into  a 
meadow,  it  would  be  glad  to  get  back  again  to  the 
mountain,  because  it  is  the  place  it  knows. 

Coaches  they  make  up  when  they  want  to  go 
driving,  with  wheels  and  all,  but  they  want  no 
horses.  There  might  be  twenty  of  them  going 
out  together  sometimes,  and  all  full  of  them. 

They  are  everywhere  around  us,  and  may  be 
within  a  yard  of  us  now  in  the  grass.  But  if  I  ask 
you,  "What  day  is  tomorrow,"  and  you  said, 
"Thursday, "  they  wouldn't  be  able  to  overhear  us. 
They  have  the  power  to  go  in  every  place,  even 
on  to  the  book  the  priest  is  using. 

There  was  one  John  Curran  lived  over  there 
towards  Bunahowe,  and  he  had  a  cow  that  died, 
and  they  were  striving  to  rear  the  calf — boiled 
hay  they  were  giving  it,  the  juice  the  hay  was 


96  Visions  and  Beliefs 

boiled  in.  And  you  never  saw  anything  to  thrive 
as  it  did.  And  one  day  some  man  was  looking  at 
it  and  he  said,  ' '  You  may  be  sure  the  mother  comes 
back  and  gives  it  milk."  And  John  Curran  said, 
"  How  can  that  be,  and  she  dead?  "  But  the  man 
said,  "She's  not  dead,  she's  in  the  forth  beyond. 
And  if  you  go  towards  it  half  an  hour  before  sunrise 
you'll  find  her,  and  you  should  catch  a  hold  of  her 
and  bring  her  home  and  milk  her,  and  when  she 
makes  to  go  away  again,  take  a  hold  of  her  tail 
and  follow  her."  So  he  went  out  next  morning, 
half  an  hour  before  sunrise,  up  toward  the  forth, 
and  brought  her  home  and  milked  her,  and  when 
the  milking  was  done  she  started  to  go  away  and  he 
caught  a  hold  of  the  tail  and  was  carried  along  with 
her.  And  she  brought  him  into  the  forth,  through 
a  door.  And  behind  the  door  stood  a  barrel,  and 
what  was  in  the  barrel  is  what  they  put  their 
finger  in,  and  touch  their  forehead  with  when  they 
go  out,  for  if  they  didn't  do  that  all  people  would 
be  able  to  see  them.  And  as  soon  as  he  got 
in,  there  were  voices  from  all  sides.  "Welcome, 
John  Curran,  welcome,  John  Curran."  And 
he  said:  "The  devil  take  you,  how  well  you  know 
my  name;  it's  not  a  welcome  I  want,  it's  my  cow 
to  bring  home  again."  So  in  the  end  he  got 
the  cow  and  brought  her  home.  And  he  saw 
there  a  woman  that  had  died  out  of  the  village 
about  ten  years  before,  and  she  suckling  a  child. 
{Note  26.) 

Surely  I  knew  Biddy  Early,  and  my  uncle  was  a 


Seers  and  Healers  97 

friend  of  hers.  It  was  from  the  same  power  they 
got  the  cures.  My  uncle  left  me  the  power,  and  I 
was  well  able  to  do  them  and  did  many,  but  my 
stock  was  all  dying  and  what  could  I  do?  So  I 
gave  a  part  of  the  power  to  Mrs.  Tobin  that  lives 
in  Gort,  and  she  can  cure  a  good  many  things. 
Biddy  Early  told  me  herself  that  where  she  got  it 
was  when  she  was  a  servant  girl  in  a  house,  there 
was  a  baby  lying  in  the  cradle,  and  he  went  on 
living  for  a  few  years.  But  he  was  friendly  to  her 
and  used  to  play  tunes  for  her  and  when  he  went 
away  he  gave  her  the  bottle  and  the  power.  She 
had  but  to  look  in  it  and  she'd  see  all  that  had 
happened  and  all  that  was  going  to  happen.  But 
he  made  her  make  a  promise  never  to  take  more 
than  a  shilling  for  any  cure  she  did,  and  she  would 
not  have  taken  fifty  pounds  if  you  offered  it  to 
her,  though  she  might  take  presents  of  bread  and 
wine  and  such  things. 

The  cure  for  all  things  in  the  world?  Surely  she 
had  it  and  knew  where  it  was.  And  I  knew  it 
myself  too — but  I  could  not  tell  you  of  it.  Seven 
parts  I  used  to  make  it  with,  and  one  of  them  is  a 
thing  that's  in  every  house. 

There's  a  lake  beyond  there,  and  my  uncle  one 
day  told  us  by  name  of  a  man  that  would  be 
drowned  there  at  twelve  o'clock  that  day.  And  so 
it  happened. 

One  time  I  was  walking  on  the  road  to  Gal  way, 

VOL.  I — 7 


98  Visions  and  Beliefs 

near  the  sea,  and  another  man  along  with  me. 
And  I  saw  in  a  field  beside  the  road  a  very  small 
woman  walking  down  towards  us,  and  she  smiling 
and  carrying  a  can  of  water  in  her  hand,  and  she 
was  dressed  in  a  blue  spencer.  So  I  asked  the  other 
man  did  he  see  her,  and  he  said  he  did  not,  and 
when  I  came  up  to  the  wall  she  was  gone. 

One  time  myself  when  I  went  to  look  for  a  wife, 
I  went  to  the  house,  and  there  was  a  hen  and  some 
chickens  before  the  door.  Well,  after  I  went  home 
one  of  the  chickens  died.  And  what  do  you  think 
they  said,  but  that  it  was  I  overlooked  it. 

They  hate  me  because  I  do  cures,  and  they  hated 
Biddy  Early  too.  The  priests  do  them  but  not 
in  the  same  way — they  do  them  by  the  power  of 
Almighty  God. 

My  wife  got  a  touch  from  them,  and  they  have  a 
watch  on  her  ever  since.  It  was  the  day  after  I 
married  and  I  went  to  the  fair  at  Clarenbridge. 
And  when  I  came  back  the  house  was  full  of  smoke, 
but  there  was  nothing  on  the  hearth  but  cinders, 
and  the  smoke  was  more  like  the  smoke  of  a  forge. 
And  she  was  within  lying  on  the  bed,  and  her 
brother  was  sitting  outside  the  door  crying.  So  I 
went  to  the  mother  and  asked  her  to  come  in,  and 
she  was  crying  too.  And  she  knew  well  what  had 
happened,  but  she  didn't  tell  me,  but  she  sent  for 
the  priest.     And  when  he  came  he  sent  me  for 


Seers  and  Healers  99 

Geoghegan  and  that  was  only  an  excuse  to  get 
me  away,  and  what  he  and  the  mother  tried  to 
bring  her  to  do  was  to  face  death,  and  they  knew  I 
wouldn't  allow  that  if  I  was  there.  But  the  wife 
was  very  stout  and  she  wouldn't  give  in  to  them. 
So  the  priest  read  more,  and  he  asked  would  I  be 
willing  to  lose  something,  and  I  said,  so  far  as  a  cow 
or  a  calf  I  wouldn't  mind  losing  that.  Well,  she 
partly  recovered,  but  from  that  day,  no  year  went 
by  but  I  lost  ten  lambs  maybe  or  other  things. 
And  twice  they  took  my  children  out  of  the  bed, 
two  of  them  I  have  lost.  And  the  others  they  gave 
a  touch  to.  That  girl  there, — see  the  way  she  is, 
and  can't  walk.  In  one  minute  it  came  on  her  out 
in  the  field,  with  the  fall  of  a  wall.     (Note  2J.) 

It  was  one  among  them  that  wanted  the  wife.  A 
woman  and  a  boy  we  often  saw  come  to  the  door, 
and  she  was  the  matchmaker.  And  when  we 
would  go  out,  they  would  have  vanished. 

Biddy  Early's  cure  that  you  heard  of,  it  was  the 
moss  on  the  water  of  the  mill-stream  between  the 
two  wheels  of  Ballylee.  It  can  cure  all  things 
brought  about  by  them,  but  not  any  common  ail- 
ment. But  there  is  no  cure  for  the  stroke  given 
by  a  queen  or  a  fool.  There  is  a  queen  in  every 
house  or  regiment  of  them.  It  is  of  those  they 
steal  away  they  make  queens  for  as  long  as  they 
live  or  that  they  are  satisfied  with  them. 

There  were  two  women  fighting  at  a  spring  of 
water,  and  one  hit  the  other  on  the  head  with  a  can 


ioo  Visions  and  Beliefs 

and  killed  her.  And  after  that  her  children  began 
to  die.  And  the  husband  went  to  Biddy  Early  and 
as  soon  as  she  saw  him  she  said,  "There's  nothing 
I  can  do  for  you,  your  wife  was  a  wicked  woman, 
and  the  one  she  hit  is  a  queen  among  them,  and  she 
is  taking  your  children  one  by  one  and  you  must 
suffer  till  twenty-one  years  are  up. ' '  And  so  he  did. 
The  stroke  of  a  fool,  there's  no  cure  for  either. 
There  are  many  fools  among  them  dressed  in 
strange  clothes  like  one  of  the  mummers  that  used 
to  be  going  through  the  country.  But  it  might  be 
the  fools  are  the  wisest  after  all.  There  are  two 
classes,  the  Dundonians  that  are  like  ourselves, 
and  another  race,  more  wicked  and  more  spiteful. 
Very  small  they  are  and  wide,  and  their  belly 
sticks  out  in  front,  so  that  what  they  carry  they 
don't  carry  it  on  the  back,  but  in  front,  on  the 
belly  in  a  bag.     {Note  28.) 

They  were  fighting  when  Johnny  Casey  died; 
that's  what  often  happens.  Everyone  has  friends 
among  them,  and  the  friends  would  be  trying  to 
save  you  when  the  others  would  be  trying  to  bring 
you  away.  Youngsters  they  pick  up  here  and 
there,  to  help  them  in  their  fights  and  in  their 
work.  They  have  cattle  and  horses,  but  all  of 
them  have  only  three  legs. 

They  don't  have  children  themselves,  only  the 
women  that  are  brought  away  among  them,  they 
have  children,  but  they  don't  live  for  ever,  like  the 
Dundonians. 


Seers  and  Healers  101 

The  handsome  they  like,  and  the  good  dancers. 
And  if  they  get  a  boy  amongst  them,  the  first  to 
touch  him,  he  belongs  to  her. 

There  was  a  boy  was  a  splendid  dancer,  and 
straight  and  firm,  for  they  don't  like  those  that  go 
to  right  or  left  as  they  walk.  Well,  one  night  he  was 
going  to  a  house  where  there  was  a  dance,  and 
when  he  was  about  half-way  to  it,  he  came  to 
another  house,  where  there  was  music  and  dancing 
going  on.  So  he  turned  in,  and  there  was  a  room 
all  done  up  with  curtains  and  with  screens,  and  a 
room  inside  where  the  people  were  sitting,  and  it 
was  only  those  that  were  dancing  sets  that  came 
to  the  outside  room. 

As  to  their  treasure,  it's  best  to  be  without  it. 
There  was  a  man  living  by  a  forth,  and  where  his 
house  touched  the  forth,  he  built  a  little  room  and 
left  it  for  them,  clean  and  in  good  order,  the  way 
they'd  like  it.  And  whenever  he'd  want  money, 
for  a  fair  or  the  like,  he'd  find  it  laid  on  the  table 
in  the  morning.  And  when  he  had  it  again,  he'd 
leave  it  there,  and  it  would  be  taken  away  in  the 
night.  But  after  that  going  on  for  a  time  he  lost 
his  son. 

There  was  a  room  at  Crags  where  things  used  to 
be  thrown  about,  and  everyone  could  hear  the 
noises  there.  They  had  a  right  to  clear  it  out  and 
settle  it  the  way  they'd  like  it.    You  should  do  that 


102  Visions  and  Beliefs 

in  your  own  big  house.  Set  a  little  room  for  them 
— with  spring  water  in  it  always — and  wine  you 
might  leave — no,  not  flowers — they  wouldn't  want 
so  much  as  that — but  just  what  would  show  your 
good  will. 

Now  I  have  told  you  more  than  I  told  my  wife. 


"a  great  warrior  in  the  business" 


rwas  on  the  bounds  of  Connemara  I  heard  of  this 
healer,  and  went  to  see  his  wife  in  her  little  rock- 
built  cabin  among  the  boulders,  to  ask  if  a  cure  could 
be  done  for  Mr.  Yeats,  who  was  staying  at  a  friend's 
house  near,  and  who  was  at  that  time  troubled  by 
uncertain  eyesight. 

One  evening  later  we  walked  beside  the  sea  to  the 
cottage  where  we  were  to  meet  the  healer;  a  storm  was 
blowing  and  we  were  glad  when  the  door  was  opened 
and  we  found  a  bright  turf  fire. 

He  was  short  and  broad,  with  regular  features,  and 
his  hair  was  thick  and  dark,  though  he  was  an  old 
man.  He  wore  a  flannel- sleeved  waistcoat,  and  his 
trousers  were  much  patched  on  the  knees.  He  sat  on 
a  low  bench  in  the  wide  chimney  nook,  holding  a  soft 
hat  in  his  hands  which  kept  nervously  moving.  The 
woman  of  the  house  came  over  now  and  then  to  look 
at  the  iron  tripod  on  the  hearth.  She,  like  the  healer, 
spoke  only  Irish.  The  man  of  the  house  sat  between 
us  and  interpreted,  holding  a  dip  candle  in  his  hands. 
A  dog  growled  without  ceasing  at  one  side  of  the 
hearth,  a  reddish  cat  sat  at  the  other.  The  woman 
seemed  frightened  and  angry  at  times  as  the  old  man 

spoke,  and  clutched  the  baby  to  her  breast. 

103 


/  was  told  by  the  man  of  the  house,  Coneely: 

There's  a  man  beyond  is  a  great  warrior  in  this 
business,  and  no  man  within  miles  of  the  place  will 
build  a  house  or  a  cabin  or  any  other  thing  without 
him  going  there  to  say  if  it's  in  a  right  place. 

It  was  Fagan  cured  me  of  a  pain  I  had  in  my 
arm,  I  couldn't  get  rid  of.  He  gave  me  a  some- 
thing to  drink,  and  he  bid  me  go  to  a  quarry  and 
to  touch  some  of  the  stones  that  were  lying  outside 
it  and  not  to  touch  others  of  them.  Anyway  I  got 
well. 

And  one  time  down  by  the  hill  we  were  gathering 
in  the  red  seaweed,  and  there  was  a  boy  there  that 
was  leading  a  young  horse,  the  same  way  he'd 
been  leading  him  a  year  or  more.  But  this  day  of  a 
sudden  he  made  a  snap  to  bite  him,  and  secondly  he 
reared  as  if  to  jump  on  top  of  him,  and  thirdly 
turned  around  and  made  at  him  with  the  hoofs. 
And  the  boy  threw  himself  to  one  side  and  escaped, 
but  with  the  fright  he  got  he  went  into  his  bed  and 
stopped  there.  And  the  next  day  Fagan  came  and 
told  him  everything  that  had  happened,  and  he 
said,  "I  saw  thousands  on  the  strand  near  where 
it  was  last  night." 

Pagan's  wife  said  to  me  in  her  house: 
Are  you  right?    You  are?     Then   you're   my 
105 


106  Visions  and  Beliefs 

friend.     Come  here  close  and  tell  me  is  there 
anything  himself  can  do  for  you? 

I  do  the  fortunes  no  more  since  I  got  great  abuse 
from  the  priest  for  it.  Himself  got  great  abuse 
from  the  priest  too — Father  Haverty — and  he 
gave  him  plaster  of  Paris, — I  mean  by  that  he 
spoke  soft  and  blathered  him,  but  he  does  them 
all  the  same,  and  Father  Kilroy  gave  him  leave 
when  he  was  here. 

It  was  from  his  sister  he  got  the  cure.  Taken 
she  was  when  her  baby  was  born.  She  died  in  the 
morning  and  the  baby  at  night.  We  didn't  tell 
John  of  it  for  a  month  after,  where  he  was  away, 
caring  horses.  But  he  knew  of  it  before  he  came 
home,  for  she  followed  him  there  one  day  he  was 
out  in  the  field,  and  when  he  didn't  know  her  she 
said,  "I'm  your  sister  Kate."  And  she  said,  "I 
bring  you  a  cure  that  you  may  cure  both  yourself 
and  others. ' '  And  she  told  him  of  the  herb  and  the 
field  he'd  find  it  growing,  and  that  he  must  choose 
a  plant  with  seven  branches,  the  half  of  them  above 
the  clay  and  the  half  of  them  covered  up.  And 
she  told  him  how  to  use  it. 

Twenty  years  she's  gone,  but  she's  not  dead  yet, 
but  the  last  time  he  saw  her  he  said  that  she  was 
getting  grey.  Every  May  and  November  he  sees 
her,  he'll  be  seeing  her  soon  now.  When  her  time 
comes  to  die,  she'll  be  put  in  the  place  of  some 
other  one  that's  taken,  and  so  she'll  get  absolution. 
{Note  29.) 

He  has  cured  many.    But  sometimes  they  are 


Seers  and  Healers  107 

vexed  with  him,  for  some  cure  he  has  done,  when 
he  interferes  with  some  person  they're  meaning  to 
bring  away.  And  many's  the  good  beating  they 
gave  him  out  in  the  fields  for  doing  that. 

Myself  they  gave  a  touch  to,  here  in  the  thigh, 
so  that  I  lost  my  walk ;  vexed  with  me  they  are  for 
giving  up  the  throwing  of  the  cup. 

A  nurse  she's  been  all  the  time  among  them. 
And  don't  believe  those  that  say  they  have  no 
children.  A  boy  among  them  is  as  clever  as  any 
boy  here,  but  he  must  be  matched  with  a  woman 
from  earth.  And  the  same  way  with  their  women, 
they  must  get  a  husband  here.  And  they  never 
can  give  the  breast  to  a  child,  but  must  get  a  nurse 
from  here. 

One  time  I  saw  them  myself,  in  a  field  and  they 
hurling.  Bracket  caps  they  wore  and  bracket 
clothes  that  were  of  all  colours. 

Some  were  the  same  size  as  ourselves  and  some 
looked  like  gossoons  that  didn't  grow  well.  But 
himself  has  the  second  sight  and  can  see  them  in 
every  place. 

There's  as  many  of  them  in  the  sea  as  on  the 
land,  and  sometimes  they  fly  like  birds  across  the 
bay. 

The  first  time  he  did  a  cure  it  was  on  some  poor 
person  like  ourselves,  and  he  took  nothing  for  it, 
and  in  the  night  the  sister  came  and  bid  him  not  to 
do  it  any  more  without  a  fee.  And  that  time  we 
lost  a  fine  boy. 

They'll  all  be  watching  round  when  a  person  is 


108  Visions  and  Beliefs 

dying;  and  suppose  it  was  myself,  there'd  be  my 
own  friends  crying,  crying,  and  themselves  would 
be  laughing  and  jesting,  and  glad  I'd  go.  {Note  30.) 
There  is  always  a  mistress  among  them.  When 
one  of  us  goes  among  them  they  would  all  be 
laughing  and  jesting,  but  when  that  tall  mistress 
you  heard  of  would  tip  her  stick  on  the  ground, 
they'd  all  draw  to  silence. 

Tell  me  the  Christian  name  of  your  friend  you 
want  the  cure  for.  "  William  Butler,"  I'll  keep  that. 
{Note  31.)  And  when  himself  gathers  the  herb, 
if  it's  for  a  man,  he  must  call  on  the  name  of  some 
other  man,  and  call  him  a  king — Righ — and  if  it's 
for  a  woman  he  must  call  on  the  name  of  some  other 
woman  and  call  her  a  queen  that  is  calling  on  the 
king  or  the  queen  of  the  plant. 

Fagan  said  toW.B.  Yeats  and  to  me: 
It's  not  from  them  the  harm  came  to  your  eyes. 
I  see  them  in  all  places — and  there's  no  man  mow- 
ing a  meadow  that  doesn't  see  them  at  some  time 
or  other.  As  to  what  they  look  like,  they'll  change 
colour  and  shape  and  clothes  while  you  look  round. 
Bracket  caps  they  always  wear.  There  is  a  king 
and  a  queen  and  a  fool  in  each  house  of  them,  that 
is  true  enough — but  they  would  do  you  no  harm. 
The  king  and  the  queen  are  kind  and  gentle,  and 
whatever  you'll  ask  them  for  they'll  give  it. 
They'll  do  no  harm  at  all  if  you  don't  injure  them. 
You  might  speak  to  them  if  you'd  meet  them  on 


Seers  and  Healers  109 

the  road,  and  they'd  answer  you,  if  you'd  speak 
civil  and  quiet  and  show  respect,  and  not  be  laugh- 
ing or  humbugging — they  wouldn't  like  that.  One 
night  I  was  in  bed  with  the  wife  beside  me,  and  the 
child  near  me,  near  the  fire.  And  I  turned  and 
saw  a  woman  sitting  by  the  fire,  and  she  made  a 
snap  at  the  child,  and  I  was  too  quick  for  her  and 
got  hold  of  it,  and  she  was  at  the  door  and  out  of 
it  in  one  minute,  before  I  could  get  to  her. 

Another  time  in  the  field  a  woman  came  beside 
me,  and  I  went  on  to  a  gap  in  the  wall  and  she  was 
in  it  before  me.  And  then  she  stopped  me  and  she 
said:  "I'm  your  sister  that  was  taken;  and  don't 
you  remember  how  I  got  the  fever  first  and  you 
tended  me,  and  then  you  got  it  yourself,  and  one 
had  to  be  taken  and  I  was  the  one."  And  she 
taught  me  the  cure,  and  the  way  to  use  it.  And 
she  told  me  that  she  was  in  the  best  of  places,  and 
told  me  many  things  that  she  bound  me  not  to  tell. 
And  I  asked  was  it  here  she  was  kept  ever  since, 
and  she  said  it  was,  but  she  said,  "In  six  months 
I'll  have  to  move  to  another  place,  and  others  will 
come  where  I  am  now,  and  it  would  be  better  for 
you  if  we  stopped  here,  for  the  most  of  us  here  now 
are  your  neighbours  and  your  friends."  And  it 
was  she  gave  me  the  second  sight.    {Note  32.) 

Last  year  I  was  digging  potatoes  and  a  man 
came  by,  one  of  them,  and  one  that  I  knew  well 
before.  And  he  said,  "You  have  them  this  year, 
and  we'll  have  them  the  next  two  years."  And 
you  know  the  potatoes  were  good  last  year  and 


no  Visions  and  Beliefs 

you  see  that  they  are  bad  now,  and  have  been 
made  away  with.  {Note  33.)  And  the  sister  told 
me  that  half  the  food  in  Ireland  goes  to  them,  but 
that  if  they  like  they  can  make  out  of  cow-dung  all 
they  want,  and  they  can  come  into  a  house  and 
use  what  they  like  and  it  will  never  be  missed  in 
the  morning. 

The  old  man  suddenly  stooped  and  took  a  hand- 
ful of  hot  ashes  in  his  hand,  and  put  them  in  his 
pocket.  And  presently  he  said  he'd  be  afraid  to- 
night going  home  the  road.  When  we  asked  him 
why,  he  said  he'd  have  to  tell  what  errand  he  had 
been  on. 

He  said  one  eye  of  W.  B.  Y.'s  was  worse  than  the 
other,  and  asked  if  he  had  ever  slept  out  at  nights. 
We  asked  if  he  goes  to  enquire  of  them  (the  Others) 
what  is  wrong  with  those  who  came  to  him  and  he 
said,  "Yes,  when  it  has  to  do  with  their  business — 
but  in  this  case  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  it." 
(Note  34.) 

Coneely  said  next  day: 

I  walked  home  with  the  old  man  last  night,  he 
was  afraid  to  go  by  himself.  He  pointed  out  to  me 
on  the  way  a  graveyard  where  he  had  got  a  great 
beating  from  them  one  night.  He  had  a  drop  too 
much  taken  after  being  at  a  funeral,  and  he  went 
there  and  gathered  the  plant  wrong.  And  they 
came  and  punished  him,  that  his  head  is  not  the 
better  of  it  ever  since. 

He  told  me  the  way  he  knows  in  the  gathering 


Seers  and  Healers  in 

of  the  plant  what  is  wrong  with  the  person  that  is 
looking  for  a  cure.  He  has  to  go  on  his  knees  and 
say  a  prayer  to  the  king  and  the  queen  and  the 
gentle  and  the  simple  among  them,  and  then  he 
gathers  it,  and  if  there  are  black  leaves  about  it, 
or  white  ones,  but  chiefly  a  black  leaf  folded  down, 
he  knows  the  illness  is  some  of  their  business;  but 
for  this  young  man  the  plant  came  fresh  and  green 
and  clean.  He  has  been  among  them  and  has 
seen  the  king  and  the  queen,  and  he  says  that 
they  are  no  bigger  than  the  others,  but  the  queen 
wears  a  wide  cap,  and  the  others  have  bracket  caps. 
He  never  would  allow  me  to  build  a  shed  there 
beside  the  house,  though  I  never  saw  anything 
there  myself. 


OLD  DERUANE 

y^\LI>  DERUANE  lived  in  the  middle  island  of 
v^  Aran,  Inishmaan,  where  I  have  stayed  more 
than  once.  He  was  one  of  the  evening  visitors  to  the 
cottage  I  stayed  in,  when  the  fishers  had  come  home 
and  had  eaten,  and  the  fire  was  stirred  and  flashed 
on  the  dried  mackerel  and  conger  eels  hanging  over 
the  wide  hearth,  and  the  little  vessel  of  cod  oil  had  a 
fresh  wick  put  in  it  and  lighted.  The  men  would  sit 
in  a  half -circle  on  the  floor,  passing  the  lighted  pipe 
from  one  to  another;  the  women  would  find  some  work 
with  yarn  or  wheel.  The  talk  often  turned  on  the 
fallen  angels  or  the  dead,  for  the  dwellers  in  those 
islands  have  not  been  moulded  in  that  dogma  which 
while  making  belief  in  the  after-life  an  essential, 
makes  belief  in  the  shadow-visit  of  a  spirit  yearning 
after  those  it  loved  a  vanity,  a  failing  of  the  great 
essential,  common  sense,  and  sets  down  one  who  be- 
lieves in  such  things  as  what  Burton  calls  in  his 
Anatomy  "a  melancholy  dizzard" 


112 


/  was  told  by  Old  Deruane: 

I  was  born  and  bred  in  the  North  Island,  and 
ten  old  fathers  of  mine  are  buried  there. 

I  can  speak  English,  because  I  went  to  earn  in 
England  in  the  hard  times,  and  I  was  for  five 
quarters  in  a  country  town  called  Manchester; 
and  I  have  threescore  and  fifteen  years. 

I  knew  two  fine  young  women  were  brought 
away  after  childbirth,  and  they  were  seen  after 
in  the  North  Island  going  about  with  them.  One 
of  them  I  saw  myself  there,  one  time  I  was  out 
late  at  night  going  to  the  east  village.  I  saw  her 
pattern  walking  on  the  north  side  of  the  wall,  on 
the  road  near  me,  but  she  said  nothing.  And  my 
body  began  to  shake,  and  I  was  going  to  get  to  the 
south  side  of  the  wall,  to  put  it  between  us;  but 
then  I  said,  "Where  is  God?"  and  I  walked  on  and 
passed  her,  and  she  looked  aside  at  me  but  she 
didn't  speak.  And  I  heard  her  after  me  for  a  good 
while,  but  I  never  looked  back,  for  it's  best  not 
to  look  back  at  them. 

And  there  was  another  woman  had  died,  and 
one  evening  late  I  was  coming  from  the  school- 
master, for  he  and  I  are  up  to  one  another,  and  he 
often  gives  me  charity.  And  then  I  saw  her  or  her 
pattern  walking  along  that  field  of  rock  you  passed 

VOL.  I— 8  113 


ii4  Visions  and  Beliefs 

by  just  now.  But  I  stopped  and  I  didn't  speak  to 
her,  and  she  went  on  down  the  road,  and  when  she 
was  about  forty  fathoms  below  me  I  could  hear  her 
abusing  some  one,  but  no  one  there.  I  thought 
maybe  it  was  that  she  was  vexed  at  me  that  I 
didn't  question  her.  She  was  a  young  woman  too. 
I'll  go  bail  they  never  take  an  old  man  or  woman 
— what  would  they  do  with  them?  If  by  chance 
they'd  come  among  them  they'd  throw  them  out 
again. 

Another  night  I  was  out  and  the  moon  shining, 
I  knew  by  the  look  of  it  the  night  was  near  wore 
away.  And  when  I  came  to  the  corner  of  the  road 
beyond,  my  flesh  began  to  shake  and  my  hair  rose 
up,  and  every  hair  was  as  stiff  as  that  stick.  So  I 
knew  that  some  evil  thing  was  near,  and  I  got 
home  again.  This  island  is  as  thick  as  grass  with 
them,  or  as  sand ;  but  good  neighbours  make  good 
neighbours,  and  no  woman  minding  a  house  but 
should  put  a  couple  of  the  first  of  the  potatoes 
aside  on  the  dresser,  for  there's  no  house  but 
they'll  visit  it  some  time  or  other.  Myself,  I 
always  brush  out  my  little  tent  clean  of  a  night 
before  I  lie  down,  and  the  night  I'd  do  it  most 
would  be  a  rough  night.  How  do  we  know  what 
poor  soul  might  want  to  come  in? 

I  saw  them  playing  ball  one  day  when  the  slip 
you  landed  at  was  being  made,  and  I  went  down  to 
watch  the  work.  There  were  hundreds  of  them 
in  the  field  at  the  top  of  it,  about  three  feet  tall,  and 
little  caps  on  them ;  but  the  men  that  were  working 


Seers  and  Healers  115 

there,  they  couldn't  see  them.  {Note  35.)  And 
one  morning  I  went  down  to  the  well  to  leave  my 
pampooties  in  it  to  soak — it  was  a  Sabbath  morn- 
ing and  I  was  going  to  Mass — and  the  pampooties 
were  hard  and  wore  away  my  feet,  and  I  left  them 
there.  And  when  I  came  back  in  a  few  minutes 
they  were  gone,  and  I  looked  in  every  cleft,  but  I 
couldn't  find  them.  And  when  I  was  going  away, 
I  felt  them  about  me,  and  coming  between  my  two 
sticks  that  I  was  walking  with.  And  I  stopped  and 
looked  down  and  said,  "I  know  you're  there, "  and 
then  I  said,  "Gentlemen,  I  know  you're  here  about 
me, "  and  when  I  said  that  word  they  went  away. 
Was  it  they  took  my  pampooties?  Not  at  all — 
what  would  they  want  with  such  a  thing  as 
pampooties?  It  was  some  children  must  have 
taken  them,  and  I  never  saw  them  since. 
I  One  time  I  wanted  to  settle  myself  clean,  and  I 
brought  down  my  waistcoat  and  a  few  little  things 
I  have,  to  give  them  a  rinse  in  the  sea-water,  and 
I  laid  them  out  on  a  stone  to  dry,  and  I  left  one  of 
my  sticks  on  them.  And  when  I  came  back  after 
leaving  them  for  a  little  time,  the  stick  was  gone. 
And  I  was  vexed  at  first  to  be  without  it,  but  I 
knew  that  they  had  taken  it  to  be  humbugging 
me,  or  maybe  for  their  own  use  in  fighting.  For 
there  is  nothing  there  is  more  fighting  among  than 
them.  So  I  said,  "  Welcome  to  it,  Gentlemen,  may 
it  bring  you  luck;  maybe  you'll  make  more  use  of. 
it  than  ever  I  did  myself." 

One  night  when  I  was  sleeping  in  my  little  tent, 


n6  Visions  and  Beliefs 

I  heard  a  great  noise  of  fighting,  and  I  thought  it 
was  down  at  Mrs.  Jordan's  house,  and  that  maybe 
the  children  were  troublesome  in  the  bed,  she 
having  a  great  many  of  them.  And  in  the  morning 
as  I  passed  the  house  I  said  to  her,  "What  was  on 
you  in  the  night?"  And  she  said  there  was 
nothing  happened  there,  and  that  she  heard  no 
noise.  So  I  said  nothing  but  went  on ;  and  when  I 
came  to  the  flag-stones  beyond  her  house,  they 
were  covered  with  great  splashes  and  drops  of 
blood.  So  I  said  nothing  of  that  either,  but  went 
on.  What  time  of  the  year?  Wait  till  I  think,  it 
was  this  very  same  time  of  the  year,  the  month  of 
May. 

One  time  I  was  out  putting  seed  in  the  ground, 
and  the  ridges  all  ready  and  the  seaweed  spread  in 
them;  and  it  was  a  fine  day,  but  I  heard  a  storm  in 
the  air,  and  then  I  knew  by  signs  that  it  was  they 
were  coming.  And  they  came  into  the  field  and 
tossed  the  seaweed  and  the  seed  about,  and  I 
spoke  to  them  civil  and  then  they  went  in  to  a 
neighbour's  field,  and  from  that  down  to  the  sea, 
and  there  they  turned  into  a  ship,  the  grandest 
that  ever  I  saw. 

There  was  a  man  on  this  island  went  out  with 
two  others  fishing  in  his  curragh,  and  when  they 
were  about  a  mile  out  they  saw  a  ship  coming 
towards  them,  and  when  they  looked  again,  in- 
stead of  having  three  masts  she  had  none,  and 
just  when  they  were  going  to  take  up  the  curragh 
to  bring  it  ashore,  a  great  wave  came  and  turned  it 


Seers  and  Healers  117 

upside  down.  And  the  man  that  owned  her  got 
such  a  fright  that  he  couldn't  walk,  and  the  other 
two  had  to  hold  him  under  the  arms  to  bring  him 
home.  And  he  went  to  his  bed,  and  within  a  week 
after,  he  was  dead. 

One  night  I  heard  a  crying  down  the  road,  and 
the  next  day,  there  was  a  child  of  Tom  Regan's 
dead.  And  it  was  a  few  months  after  that,  that  I 
heard  a  crying  again.  And  the  next  day  another  of 
his  children  was  gone. 

There  was  a  fine  young  man  was  buried  in  the 
graveyard  below,  and  a  good  time  after  that,  there 
was  work  being  done  in  it,  and  they  came  on  his 
coffin,  and  the  mother  made  them  open  it,  and 
there  was  nothing  in  it  at  all  but  a  broom,  and  it 
tied  up  with  a  bit  of  a  rope. 

There  was  a  man  was  passing  by  that  Sheoguy 
place  below,  "Breagh"  we  call  it.  And  he  saw  a 
man  come  riding  out  of  it  on  a  white  horse.  And 
when  he  got  home  that  night  there  was  nothing  for 
him  or  for  any  of  them  to  eat,  for  the  potatoes 
were  not  in  yet.  And  in  the  morning  he  asked  the 
wife  was  there  anything  to  eat,  and  she  said  a 
neighbour  had  sent  in  a  pan  of  meal.  So  she  made 
that  into  stirabout,  and  he  took  but  a  small  bit  of 
it  out  of  her  hand  to  leave  more  for  the  rest.  And 
then  he  took  a  sheet,  and  bid  her  make  a  bag  of  it, 
and  he  got  a  horse  and  rode  to  the  place  where  he 
saw  the  man  ride  out,  for  he  knew  he  was  the 
master  of  them.  And  he  asked  for  the  full  of  the 
bag  of  meal,  and  said  he'd  bring  it  back  again. 


n8  Visions  and  Beliefs 

when  he  had  it.  And  the  man  brought  the  bag 
in,  and  filled  it  for  him  and  brought  it  out  again. 
And  when  the  oats  were  ripe,  the  first  he  cut,  he 
got  ground  at  the  mill  and  brought  it  to  the  place 
and  gave  it  in.  And  the  man  came  out  and  took 
it,  and  said  whatever  he'd  want  at  any  time,  to 
come  to  him  and  he'd  get  it. 

In  a  bad  year  they  say  they  bring  away  the 
potatoes  and  that  may  be  so.  They  want  provi- 
sion, and  they  must  get  them  at  one  place  or 
another. 

Mr.  McArdle  joins  in  and  says: 

This  I  can  tell  you  and  be  certain  of,  and  I 
remember  well  that  the  man  in  the  third  house  to 
this  died  after  being  sick  a  long  time.  And  the 
wife  died  after,  and  she  was  to  be  buried  in  the 
same  place,  and  when  they  came  to  the  husband's 
coffin  they  opened  it,  and  there  was  nothing  in  it 
at  all,  neither  brooms  nor  anything  else. 

There's  a  boy,  I  know  him  well,  that  was  up  at 
that  forth  above  the  house  one  day,  and  a  blast  of 
wind  came  and  blew  the  hat  of!  him.  And  when 
he  saw  it  going  off  in  the  air  he  cried  out,  "Do 
whatever  is  pleasing  to  you,  but  give  me  back  my 
cap!"  And  in  the  moment  it  was  settled  back 
again  on  to  his  head. 

Old  Deruane  goes  on: 

There  are  many  can  do  cures,  because  they  have 
something  walking  with  them,  what  one  may  call  a 


Seers  and  Healers  119 

ghost  from  among  the  Sheogue.  A  few  cures  I 
can  do  myself,  and  this  is  how  I  got  them.  I  told 
you  that  I  was  for  five  quarters  in  Manchester, 
and  where  I  lodged  were  two  old  women  in  the 
house,  from  the  farthest  end  of  Mayo,  for  they 
were  running  from  Mayo  at  the  time  because  of 
the  hunger.  And  I  knew  that  they  were  likely  to 
have  a  cure,  for  St.  Patrick  blessed  the  places  he 
was  not  in  more  than  the  places  he  was  in,  and 
with  the  cure  he  left  and  the  fallen  angels,  there 
are  many  in  Mayo  can  do  them. 

Now  it's  the  custom  in  England  never  to  clean 
the  table  but  once  in  the  week  and  that  on  a  Satur- 
day night.  And  on  that  night  all  is  set  out  clean, 
and  all  the  crutches  of  bread  and  bits  of  meat  and 
the  like  are  gathered  together  in  a  tin  can,  and 
thrown  out  in  the  street,  and  women  that  have 
no  other  way  of  living  come  round  then  with  a  bag 
that  would  hold  two  stone,  and  they  pick  up  all 
that's  thrown  out  in  the  street,  and  live  on  it  for  a 
week.  And  often  I  didn't  eat  the  half  of  what  was 
before  me,  and  I  wouldn't  throw  it  out,  but  I'd 
bring  it  to  the  two  old  women  that  were  in  the 
house,  so  they  grew  very  fond  of  me. 

Well,  when  the  time  came  that  I  thought  to 
draw  towards  home,  I  brought  them  one  day  to  a 
public-house  and  made  a  drop  of  punch  for  them, 
and  then  I  picked  the  cure  out  of  them,  for  I  was 
wise  in  those  days. 

Those  that  get  a  touch  I  could  save  from  being 
brought  away,  but  I  couldn't  bring  back  a  man 


120  Visions  and  Beliefs 

that's  away,  for  it's  only  those  that  have  been 
living  among  them  for  a  while  that  can  do  that. 
There  was  a  neighbour's  child  was  sick,  and  I  got 
word  of  it,  and  I  went  to  the  house,  for  the  woman 
there  had  showed  me  kindness.  And  I  went  in  to 
the  cradle  and  I  lifted  the  quilt  off  the  child's  face 
and  you  could  see  by  it,  and  I  knew  the  sign,  that 
there  was  some  of  their  work  there.  And  I  said, 
"You  are  not  likely  to  have  the  child  long  with 
you,  Ma'am."  And  she  said,  "Indeed  I  know  I 
won't  have  him  long."  So  I  said  nothing  but  I 
went  out,  and  whatever  I  did,  and  whatever  I  got 
there,  I  brought  it  again  and  gave  it  to  the  child, 
and  he  began  to  get  better.  And  the  next  day  I 
brought  the  same  thing  again,  and  gave  it  the 
child,  and  I  looked  at  it  and  I  said  to  the  mother, 
1 '  He'll  live  to  comb  his  hair  grey. ' '  And  from  that 
time  he  got  better,  and  now  there's  no  stronger  child 
in  the  island,  and  he  the  youngest  in  the  house. 

After  that  the  husband  got  sick,  and  the  woman 
said  to  me  one  day,  "If  there's  anything  you  can 
do  to  cure  him,  have  pity  on  me  and  on  my  children, 
and  I'll  give  you  what  you'll  wish."  But  I  said, 
"I'll  do  what  I  can  for  you,  but  I'll  take  nothing 
from  you  except  maybe  a  grain  of  tea  or  a  glass  of 
porter,  for  I  wouldn't  take  money  for  this,  and  I 
refused  £2  one  time  for  a  cure  I  did."  So  I  went 
and  I  brought  back  the  cure,  and  I  mixed  it  with 
flour  and  made  it  into  three  little  pills  that  it 
couldn't  be  lost,  and  gave  them  to  him,  and  from 
that  time  he  got  well. 


Seers  and  Healers  121 

There's  a  woman  lived  down  the  road  there,  and 
one  day  I  went  in  to  the  house,  when  she  was  after 
coming  from  Galway  town,  and  I  asked  charity  of 
her.  And  it  was  in  the  month  of  August  when  the 
bream  fishing  was  going  on,  and  she  said,  "There's 
no  one  need  be  in  want  now,  with  fresh  fish  in  the 
sea  and  potatoes  in  the  gardens";  and  gave  me 
nothing.  But  when  I  was  out  the  door  she  said, 
1 '  Well,  come  back  here. ' '  And  I  said, ' '  If  you  were 
to  offer  me  all  you  brought  from  Galway,  I 
wouldn't  take  it  from  you  now. " 

And  from  that  time  she  began  to  pine  and  to 
wear  away  and  to  lose  her  health,  and  at  the  end  of 
three  years,  she  walked  outside  her  house  one  day, 
and  when  she  was  two  yards  from  her  own  thresh- 
old she  fell  on  the  ground,  and  the  neighbours 
came  and  lifted  her  up  on  a  door  and  brought  her 
into  the  house,  and  she  died. 

I  think  I  could  have  saved  her  then —  I  think 
I  could,  when  I  saw  her  lying  there.  But  I 
remembered  that  day,  and  I  didn't  stretch  out  a 
hand  and  I  spoke  no  word. 

I'm  going  to  rise  out  of  the  cures  and  not  to  do 
much  more  of  them,  for  they  have  given  me  a 
touch  here  in  the  right  leg,  so  that  it's  the  same 
as  dead.  And  a  woman  of  my  village  that  does 
cures,  she  is  after  being  struck  with  a  pain  in  the 
hand. 

Down  by  the  path  at  the  top  of  the  slip  from 
there  to  the  hill,  that's  the  way  they  go  most 


122  Visions  and  Beliefs 

nights,  hundreds  and  thousands  of  them.  There 
are  two  old  men  in  the  island  got  a  beating  from 
them;  one  of  them  told  me  himself  and  brought 
me  out  on  the  ground,  that  I'd  see  where  it  was. 
He  was  out  in  a  small  field,  and  was  after  binding 
up  the  grass,  and  the  sky  got  very  black  over  him 
and  very  dark.  And  he  was  thrown  down  on  the 
ground,  and  got  a  great  beating,  but  he  could  see 
nothing  at  all.  He  had  done  nothing  to  vex  them, 
just  minding  his  business  in  the  field. 

And  the  other  was  an  old  man  too,  and  he  was 
out  on  the  roads,  and  they  threw  him  there  and 
beat  him  that  he  was  out  of  his  mind  for  a  time. 

One  night  sleeping  in  that  little  cabin  of  mine, 
I  heard  them  ride  past,  and  I  could  hear  by  the 
feet  of  the  horses  that  there  was  a  long  line  of 
them. 

This  is  a  story  was  going  about  twenty  years 
ago.  There  was  a  curate  in  the  island,  and  one 
day  he  got  a  call  to  the  other  island  for  the  next 
day.  And  in  the  evening  he  told  the  servant  maid 
that  attended  him  to  clean  his  boots  good  and 
very  good,  for  he'd  be  meeting  good  people  where 
he  was  going.  And  she  said,  "  I  will,  Holy  Father, 
and  if  you'll  give  me  your  hand  and  word  to  marry 
me  for  nothing,  I'll  clean  them  grand."  And  he 
said  "I  will;  whenever  you  get  a  comrade  I'll 
marry  you  for  nothing,  I  give  you  my  hand  and 
word. "  So  she  had  the  boots  grand  for  him  in  the 
morning.    Well,  she  got  a  sickness  after,  and  after 


Seers  and  Healers  123 

seven  months  going  by,  she  was  buried.  And  six 
months  after  that,  the  curate  was  in  his  parlour  one 
night  and  the  moon  shining,  and  he  saw  a  boy  and 
a  girl  outside  the  house,  and  they  came  to  the 
window,  and  he  knew  it  was  the  servant  girl  that 
was  buried.  And  she  said,  "I  have  a  comrade 
now,  and  I  came  for  you  to  many  us  as  you  gave 
your  word."  And  he  said,  "I'll  hold  to  my  word 
since  I  gave  it,"  and  he  married  them  then  and 
there,  and  they  went  away  again.     (Note  36.) 


Ill 


THE  EVIL  EYE— THE  TOUCH— THE 
PENALTY 


125 


Ill 

THE  EVIL  EYE— THE  TOUCH— THE 
PENALTY 

"  OOME  friendly  Teydmena,  sorry  to  see  my 
O  suffering  plight,  said  to  me:  'This  is  because 
thou  hast  been  eye-struck — what !  you  do  not  under- 
stand  'eye-struck' ?  Certainly  they  have  looked  in 
your  eyes,  Khalil.  We  have  lookers  (God  cut  them 
off!)  among  us,  that  with  their  only  (malignant) 
eye-glances  may  strike  down  a  fowl  flying;  and  you 
shall  see  the  bird  tumble  in  the  air  with  loud  shrieking 
kdk-kd-kd-kd-kd.  Wellah  their  looking  can  blast  a 
palm-tree  so  that  you  shall  see  it  wither  away. 
These  are  things  well  ascertained  by  many  faith- 
ful witnesses. " — Doughty' s  Travels  in  the  Arabian 
Desert. 

There  is  one  visit  I  have  always  been  a  little  re- 
morseful  about.  It  was  in  Mayo  where  I  had  gone 
to  see  the  broken  walls  and  grass-grown  hearthstone 
that  remain  of  the  house  where  Raftery  the  poet  was 
born.  I  was  taken  to  see  an  old  woman  near,  and  the 
friend  who  was  with  me  asked  her  about  "Those." 
I  could  see  she  was  unwilling  to  speak,  and  I  would 
not  press  her,  for  there  are  some  who  fear  to  vex  in- 
visible  hearers;  so  we  talked  of  America  where  she 
had  lived  for  a  little  while.     But  presently  she  said, 

127 


128  Visions  and  Beliefs 

" All  I  ever  saw  of  them  myself  was  one  night 
when  I  was  going  home,  and  they  were  behind 
in  the  field  watching  me.  I  couldn't  see  them  but  I 
saw  the  lights  they  carried,  two  lights  on  the  top  of  a 
sort  of  dark  oak  pole.  So  I  watched  them  and  they 
watched  me,  and  when  we  were  tired  watching  one 
another  the  lights  all  went  into  one  blaze,  and  then 
they  went  away  and  it  went  out."  She  told  also  one 
or  two  of  the  traditional  stories,  of  the  man  who  had  a 
hump  put  on  him,  and  the  woman  "taken"  and 
rescued  by  her  husband,  who  she  had  directed  to  seize 
the  horse  she  was  riding  with  his  left  hand. 

Then  she  gave  a  cry  and  took  up  her  walking  stick 
from  the  hearth,  burned  through,  and  in  two  pieces, 
though  the  fire  had  seemed  to  be  but  a  smouldering 
heap  of  ashes.  We  were  very  sorry,  but  she  said 
"Don't  be  sorry.  It  is  well  it  was  into  it  the  harm 
went."  I  passed  the  house  two  or  three  hours  after- 
wards;  shutters  and  door  were  closed,  and  I  felt  that 
she  was  fretting  for  the  stick  that  had  been  "to  America 
and  back  with  me,  and  had  walked  every  part  of  the 
world, "  and  through  the  loss  of  which,  it  may  be,  she 
had  "paid  the  penalty." 

I  told  a  neighbour  about  the  doctor  having  attended 
a  man  on  the  mountains — and  how  after  some  time, 
he  found  that  one  of  the  children  was  sick  also,  but 
this  had  been  hidden  from  him,  because  if  one  had  to 
die  they  wanted  it  to  be  the  child. 

"That's  natural,"  he  said.  "Let  the  child  pay 
the  penalty  if  it  has  to  be  paid.  That's  a  thing  that 
might  happen  easy  enough" 


/  was  told  by  M.  McGarity; 

There  was  a  boy  of  the  Cloonans  I  knew  was  at 
Killinane  thatching  Henniff  's  house.  And  a  woman 
passed  by,  and  she  looked  up  at  him,  but  she  never 
said,  "God  bless  the  work."  And  Cloonan's 
mother  was  in  the  road  to  Gort  and  the  woman 
met  her  and  said,  "Where  did  your  son  learn 
thatching?  "  And  that  day  he  had  a  great  fall  and 
was  brought  home  hurt,  and  the  mother 
went  to  Biddy  Early.  And  she  said,  "Didn't 
a  red-haired  woman  meet  you  one  day  going 
into  Gort  and  ask  where  did  your  son  learn 
thatching?  And  didn't  she  look  up  at  him  as 
she  passed?  It  was  then  it  was  done."  And 
she  gave  a  bottle  and  he  got  well  after  a  while. 
{Note  37.) 

Some  say  the  evil  eye  is  in  those  who  were 
baptized  wrong,  but  I  believe  it's  not  that, 
but  if,  when  a  woman  is  carrying,  some  one 
that  meets  her  says,  "So  you're  in  that  way," 
and  she  says,  "The  devil  a  fear  of  me,"  as 
even  a  married  woman  might  say  for  sport  or 
not  to  let  on,  the  devil  gets  possession  of  the  child 
at  that  moment,  and  when  it  is  .born  it  has  the 
evil  eye. 

vol.  1—9  I29 


130  Visions  and  Beliefs 

Margaret  Bartly: 

There  was  a  woman  below  in  that  village  where 
I  lived  to  my  grief  and  my  sorrow,  and  she  used 
to  be  throwing  the  evil  eye,  but  she  is  in  the  poor- 
house  now — Mrs.  Boylan  her  name  is.  Four  she 
threw  it  on,  not  children  but  big  men,  and  they 
lost  the  walk  and  all,  and  died.  Maybe  she  didn't 
know  she  had  it,  but  it  is  no  load  to  any  one  to  say 
"God  bless  you."  I  faced  her  one  time  and  told 
her  it  would  be  no  load  to  her  when  she  would  see 
the  man  in  the  field,  and  the  horses  ploughing  to 
say  "  God  bless  them, "  and  she  was  vexed  and  she 
asked  did  I  think  she  had  the  evil  eye,  and  I  said 
I  did.  So  she  began  to  scold  and  I  left  her.  That 
was  five  years  ago,  and  it  is  in  the  poor-house  in 
Ballyvaughan  she  is  this  two  years;  but  she  can  do 
no  harm  there  because  she  has  lost  her  sight. 

Mrs.  Nelly  of  Knockmogue : 

There  was  a  girl  lived  there  near  the  gate  got 
sick.  And  after  waiting  a  long  time  and  she  getting 
no  better  the  mother  brought  in  a  woman  that 
lived  in  the  bog  beyond,  that  used  to  do  cures. 
And  when  she  saw  the  girl,  she  knew  what  it  was, 
and  that  she  had  been  overlooked.  And  she  said, 
"  Did  you  meet  three  men  on  the  road  one  day,  and 
didn't  one  of  them,  a  dark  one,  speak  to  you  and 
give  no  blessing?"  And  she  said  that  was  so. 
And  she  would  have  done  a  cure  on  her,  but  we 
had  a  very  good  priest  at  that  time,  Father  Hay  den, 
a  curate,  and  he  used  to  take  a  drop  of  liquor  and 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       131 

so  he  had  courage  to  do  cures.  And  he  said  this 
was  a  business  for  him,  and  he  cured  her,  and  the 
mother  gave  him  money  for  it. 

It  was  by  herbs  that  woman  used  to  do  cures, 
and  whatever  power  she  got  in  the  gathering  of 
them,  she  was  able  to  tell  what  would  happen. 
But  she  was  in  great  danger  all  her  life  from 
gathering  the  herbs,  for  they  don't  like  any  one 
to  be  cured  that  they  have  put  a  touch  on. 

Mrs.  Clerey: 

I  can  tell  you  what  happened  to  two  sons  of 
mine.  A  woman  that  passed  by  them  said, 
"You've  often  threatened  me  by  night,  and  my 
curse  is  on  you  now."  And  the  one  answered  her 
back  but  the  other  didn  't.  And  after  that  they  both 
took  sick,  but  the  one  that  didn't  answer  her  was 
the  worst.  And  they  pined  a  long  time.  And  I 
brought  the  one  that  was  so  bad  over  to  Kilronan 
to  the  priest  and  he  read  over  him.  It  was  a  lump 
in  his  mouth  he  had,  that  you  could  hardly  put 
down  a  spoonful  of  milk,  and  there  was  a  good 
doctor  there  and  he  sliced  it,  and  he  got  well. 
But  the  priest  often  told  me  that  but  for  what  he 
did  for  him  he  would  never  have  got  well.  For 
there's  no  doubt  there's  some  in  the  world  it's  not 
well  to  talk  with. 

The  time  my  son  got  the  pain,  he  came  in  roaring 
and  said  he  got  a  stab  in  the  knee.  It  was  surely 
some  evil  thing  that  put  it  on  him.  There  are 
some  that  have  the  evil  eye,  and  that  don't  know 


132  Visions  and  Beliefs 

it  themselves.  Father  McEvilly  told  me  that. 
He  said  a  woman  that  was  carrying,  and  that  was 
not  married,  but  that  got  married  while  she  was 
carrying,  she  might  put  the  evil  eye  on  you,  and 
not  know  it  at  all.  And  he  said  anyway  it  would 
be  no  great  load  to  say  "God  bless  you"  to  any 
one  you  might  meet. 

The  priests  can  do  cures  if  they  like,  but  those 
that  have  stock  don't  like  to  be  doing  it,  Father 
Folan  won't  do  it,  but  Father  McEvilly  would. 

One  time  my  brother  got  a  great  pain,  and  my 
father  sent  me  to  Father  Gallagher,  to  ask  could  he 
cure  and  read  the  Mass  of  the  Holy  Ghost  over 
him.  But  when  I  asked  him  he  called  out,  "I 
won't  do  that,  I  won't  read  for  any  one."  He  was 
afraid  to  go  as  far  as  that  for  fear  it  might  fall  on 
his  stock,  that  he  had  a  great  deal  of. 

James  Fdhey: 

Do  you  think  the  drohuil  is  not  in  other  places 
besides  Aran?  My  mother  told  me  herself  that 
she  was  out  at  a  dance  one  evening,  and  there  was 
a  fine  young  man  there  and  he  dancing  till  he  had 
them  all  tired ;  and  a  woman  that  was  sitting  there 
said  "He  can  do  what  he  likes  with  his  legs, "  and 
at  that  instant  he  fell  dead.  My  mother  told  me 
that  herself,  and  she  heard  the  woman  say  it,  and 
so  did  many  others  that  were  there. 

Frank  McDaragh: 

There's  none  can  do  cures  well  in  this  island 
like  Biddy  Early  used  to  do.    I  want  to  know  of 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       133 

some  good  man  or  woman  in  that  line  to  go  to,  for 
that  little  girl  of  my  own  got  a  touch  last  week. 
Coming  home  from  Mass  she  was,  and  she  felt  a 
pain  in  her  knee,  and  it  ran  down  to  the  foot  and 
up  again,  and  since  then  the  feet  are  swelled,  you 
might  see  them. 

Mrs.  Meade: 

And  about  here  they  all  believe  in  the  faeries — 
and  I  hear  them  say — but  I  don't  give  much  heed 
to  it — that  Mrs.  Hehir  the  butcher's  sister  that 
died  last  week — but  I  don't  know  much  about  it. 
But  anyhow  she  was  married  three  years,  and  had 
a  child  every  year,  and  this  time  she  died.  And 
when  the  coffin  was  leaving  the  house,  the  young 
baby  began  to  scream,  and  to  go  into  convulsions, 
for  all  the  world  as  if  it  was  put  on  the  fire. 

Another  says  about  this  same  woman,  Mrs. 
Hehir: 

It's  overlooked  she  was  when  she  went  out  for 
a  walk  with  a  scholar  from  the  seminary  that  is 
going  to  be  a  priest,  and  she  without  a  shawl 
over  her  head.  It's  then  she  was  overlooked ;  they 
seeing  what  a  fine  handsome  woman  she  was,  she 
was  took  away  to  be  nurse  to  themselves. 

Mrs.  Quade: 

A  great  pity  it  was  about  Mrs.  Hehir  and  she 
leaving  three  young  orphans.  But  sure  they  do  be 
saying  a  great  big  black  bird  flew  into  the  house 


134  Visions  and  Beliefs 

and  around  about  the  kitchen — and  it  was  the 
next  day  the  sickness  took  her. 

The  Doctor: 

Mrs.  Hehirs  was  a  difficult  case  to  diagnose,  and 
I  could  not  give  it  a  name.  At  the  end  she  was 
flushed  and  delirious;  and  when  one  of  the  women 
attending  her  said,  "  She  looks  so  well  you  wouldn't 
think  it  was  herself  that  was  in  it  at  all,"  I  knew 
what  was  in  their  minds.  Afterwards  I  was  told 
that  the  day  the  illness  began  she  had  been  churn- 
ing, and  a  strange  woman  came  in  and  said,  M  Give 
me  a  hold  of  the  staff  and  I'll  do  a  bit  of  the 
churning  for  you. "  But  she  refused  and  the  woman 
said,  "It's  the  last  time  you'll  have  the  chance  of 
refusing  anyone  that  asks  you"  and  went  out, 
and  she  was  not  seen  again,  then  or  afterwards. 

J.  Madden: 

There's  one  thing  should  never  be  done,  and 
that's  to  say  "That's  a  fine  woman,"  or  such  a 
thing  and  not  to  say  "God  bless  her."  I  never 
believed  that  till  a  man  that  lives  in  the  next 
holding  to  my  own  told  me  what  happened  to  a 
springer  he  had.  She  was  as  fine  a  creature  as 
ever  you  seen,  and  one  day  a  friend  of  his  came  in 
to  see  him,  and  when  he  was  going  away,  "That's 
a  grand  cow,"  says  he,  but  he  didn't  say  "God 
bless  it."  Well,  the  owner  of  the  cow  went  into 
the  house  and  he  sat  down  by  the  fire  and  lit  a 
pipe,  and  when  he  had  the  pipe  smoked  out  he 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       135 

came  out  again,  and  there  she  was  lying  down  and 
not  able  to  stir.  So  he  remembered  what  happened 
and  he  went  after  his  friend,  and  found  him  in 
a  neighbour's  house.  And  he  brought  him  back 
with  him,  and  made  him  go  into  the  field  and 
say,  "God  bless  it,"  and  spit  on  the  cow.  And 
with  that  she  got  up  and  walked  away  as  well  as 
before. 

John  McManus: 

They  can  only  take  a  child  or  a  horse  or  such 
things  through  the  eye  of  a  sinner.  If  his  eye 
falls  on  it,  and  he  speaks  to  praise  it  and  doesn't 
say  "God  bless  it,"  they  can  bring  it  away  then. 
But  if  you  say  it  yourself  in  your  heart,  it  will  do 
as  well. 

There  was  a  man  lived  about  a  mile  beyond 
Spiddal,  and  he  was  one  day  at  a  play,  and  he  was 
the  best  at  the  hurling  and  the  throwing  and  every 
game.  And  a  woman  of  the  crowd  called  out  to 
him,  "You're  the  straightest  man  that's  in  it." 
And  twice  after  that  a  man  that  was  beside  him 
and  that  heard  that  said,  saw  him  pass  by  with 
his  coat  on  before  sunrise.  And  on  the  fifth  day 
after  that  he  was  dead. 

He  left  four  or  five  sons  and  some  of  them  went 
to  America  and  the  eldest  of  them  married  and  was 
living  in  the  place  with  his  wife.  And  he  was  going 
to  Galway  for  a  fair,  and  his  wife  was  away  with 
her  father  and  mother  on  the  road  to  Galway  and 


136  Visions  and  Beliefs 

she  bid  him  to  come  early,  that  she'd  have  some 
commands  for  him  to  do.  So  it  was  before  sunrise 
when  he  set  out,  and  he  was  going  over  a  little  side 
road  through  the  fields,  and  he  came  on  the  biggest 
fair  he  ever  saw,  and  the  most  people  in  it.  And 
they  made  a  way  for  him  to  pass  through  and  a 
man  with  a  big  coat  and  a  tall  hat  came  out  from 
them  and  said,  u  Do  you  know  me?"  And  he  said, 
"Are  you  my  father?"  And  the  man  said,  "I  am, 
and  but  for  me  you'd  be  sorry  for  coming  here,  but 
I  saved  you,  but  don't  be  coming  out  so  early  in 
the  morning  again."  And  he  said,  "It  was  a  year 
ago  that  Jimmy  went  to  America.  And  that  was 
time  enough."  And  then  he  said,  "And  it  was 
you  that  drove  your  sister  away,  and  gave  her  no 
fortune."     And  that  was  true  enough. 

One  time  there  was  two  brothers  standing  in  a 
gap  in  that  field  you're  looking  at.  And  a  woman 
passed  by,  I  wouldn't  like  to  tell  you  her  name,  for 
we  should  speak  no  evil  of  her  and  she's  dead  now, 
— the  Lord  have  mercy  on  her.  And  when  she 
passed  they  heard  her  say  in  Irish,  "The  devil 
take  you,"  but  whether  she  knew  they  were  there 
or  not,  I  don't  know.  And  the  elder  of  the  brothers 
called  out,  "The  devil  take  yourself  as  well. "  But 
the  younger  one  said  nothing.  And  that  night  the 
younger  one  took  sick,  and  through  the  night  he 
was  calling  out  and  talking  as  if  to  people  in  the 
room.  And  the  next  day  the  mother  went  to  a 
woman  that  gathered  herbs,  the  mother  of  the 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       137 

woman  that  does  cures  by  them  now,  and  told  her 
all  that  happened. 

And  she  took  a  rag  of  an  old  red  coat,  and  went 
down  to  the  last  village,  and  into  the  house  of  the 
woman  that  had  put  it,  the  evil  eye,  on  him. 
And  she  sat  there  and  was  talking  with  her,  and 
watched  until  she  made  a  spit  on  the  floor,  and 
then  she  gathered  it  up  on  the  rag  and  came  to  the 
sick  man  in  the  bed  and  rubbed  him  with  it,  and 
he  got  well  on  the  minute. 

It  was  hardly  ever  that  woman  would  say  "  God 
bless  the  work"  as  she  passed,  and  there  were  some 
would  leave  the  work  and  come  out  on  the  road 
and  hold  her  by  the  shoulder  till  she'd  say  it. 

A  Man  on  the  Boat: 

There  are  many  can  put  on  the  drohuil.  I  knew 
a  child  in  our  village  and  a  neighbour  came  in  and 
said,  "That's  a  fine  child";  and  no  sooner  was  he 
gone  than  the  child  got  a  fit.  So  they  brought 
him  back  and  made  him  spit  on  the  child  and  it 
got  well  after.  Those  that  have  that  power,  I 
believe  it's  born  with  them,  and  it's  said  they  can 
do  it  on  their  own  children  as  well  as  on  ours. 

There  was  a  boy  called  Faherty,  nephew  to 
Faherty  that  keeps  the  licensed  house,  and  he  was 
a  great  one  for  all  games,  and  at  every  pattern,  and 
whenever  anything  was  going  on.  And  one  time 
he  went  over  to  Kilronan  where  they  had  some 
sports,  and  it  the  24th  of  June.    And  they  were 


138  Visions  and  Beliefs 

throwing  the  weight,  and  he  took  it  up  and  he 
threw  it  farther  than  the  police  or  any  that  were 
there;  and  the  second  time  he  did  the  same  thing. 
And  when  he  was  going  to  throw  it  the  third  time, 
his  uncle  came  to  him  and  said  "It's  best  for  you 
to  leave  it  now;  you  have  enough  done. "  But  he 
wouldn't  mind  him,  and  threw  it  the  third  time, 
and  farther  than  they  all. 

And  the  next  year  at  that  time  on  the  24th  of 
June,  he  was  stretched  on  his  bed,  and  he  died. 
And  some  one  was  talking  about  the  day  he  did  so 
much  at  Kilronan,  and  the  father  said :  ' '  I  remem- 
ber him  coming  into  the  house  after  that,  and  he 
put  up  his  arm  on  the  dresser  as  if  there  was  some- 
thing ailed  him."  And  the  boy  spoke  from  his 
bed  and  said,  "You  ought  to  have  said  'God  bless 
you'  then.  If  my  mother  had  been  living  then 
she'd  have  said  it,  and  I  wouldn't  be  lying  here 
now." 

There  were  two  other  fine  young  men  died  in  the 
same  year,  and  one  night  after,  the  three  of  them 
appeared  to  a  sick  man,  Jamsie  Power,on  the  south 
island,  and  talked  with  him.  But  they  didn't 
stay  long  because,  they  said,  they  had  to  go  on  to 
the  coast  of  Clare. 

My  own  first-born  child  wasn't  spared.  He  was 
born  in  February  and  all  the  neighbours  said  they 
never  saw  so  fine  a  child.  And  one  night  towards 
the  end  of  March,  I  was  in  the  bed,  and  the  child 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       139 

on  my  arm  between  me  and  the  wall,  sleeping  warm 
and  well,  and  the  wife  was  settling  things  about 
the  house.  And  when  she  got  into  bed,  she  wanted 
to  take  the  child,  and  I  said, ' '  Don't  stir  him,  where 
he's  so  warm  and  so  well";  but  she  took  him  in 
her  own  arm.  And  in  the  morning  he  was  dead. 
And  up  to  the  time  he  was  buried,  you'd  say  he 
wasn't  dead  at  all,  so  fresh  and  so  full  in  the  face 
he  looked. 

There  was  a  neighbour  about  the  same  time  had 
a  child  and  it  was  in  the  bed  with  them,  but  it  was 
sick.  And  one  night  he  was  sure  he  heard  some 
one  say  outside  the  house,  "It's  time  he  should  be 
stretched  out  to  me."  So  he  got  up  and  opened 
the  window,  and  he  threw  a  vessel  of  dirty  water 
over  whatever  was  outside,  and  he  heard  no  more, 
and  his  child  got  well  and  grew  up  strong. 

An  Island  Woman: 

And  there's  some  people  the  fishermen  wouldn't 
pass  when  they  are  going  to  the  boats,  but  would 
turn  back  again  if  they'd  meet  them.  One  day 
two  boys  of  mine,  Michael  and  Danny,  were  down 
on  the  rocks,  bream-fishing  with  lines,  and  I  had  a 
job  of  washing  with  the  wife  of  the  head  coast-' 
guard.  But  when  it  came  to  one  o'clock  something 
came  over  me,  and  I  thought  the  boys  might 
have  got  the  hunger,  and  I  went  to  Mrs.  Patterson 
and  said  I  must  leave  work  for  that  day,  and  I 
went  and  bought  a  three-halfpenny  loaf  and 
brought  it  down  to  where  they  were  fishing,  and 


140  Visions  and  Beliefs 

when  I  got  there  I  saw  that  Michael  the  younger 
one  was  limping,  and  I  said,  "It  must  be  from  the 
hunger  you're  not  able  to  walk."  "Oh,  no,"  he 
said,  "but  it's  a  pain  I  got  in  my  heel,  and  I  can't 
put  it  to  the  ground. "  And  when  we  got  home  he 
went  into  his  bed,  and  he  didn't  leave  it  for  three 
months.  And  one  day  I  said  to  him,  "What  was 
it  happened  you,  did  you  meet  any  one  on  the  road 
that  day  that  said  anything  to  you?"  And  he 
said,  "I  did,  I  met  a  woman  of  the  village  and  she 
said,  '  It's  good  to  be  you  and  to  have  a  fine  basket 
of  bream,'  and  she  said  no  more  than  that,  and 
that  very  minute  the  pain  came  on  my  heel.  But 
I  won't  tell  you  her  name,  for  fear  there'd  be  a 
row."  But  I  made  him  tell  me,  and  I  promised 
never  to  say  a  word  to  her  and  I  never  did;  but 
he's  not  the  first  she  did  that  to. 

An  Old  Man  with  a  Basket: 

They  can  put  the  drohuil  here  and  I  suppose  in 
all  parts,  and  you  should  watch  not  to  let  any  one 
meet  you  unless  they  would  say,  "God  bless  you, " 
and  spit. 

There  was  a  woman  in  this  island  lost  her  walk 
for  a  year  and  a  half,  till  they  went  to  Galway  to  a 
woman  that  throws  the  cups,  and  she  bid  them  go 
into  the  next  house  where  there  was  a  black  man 
living,  and  give  him  tobacco  to  be  smoking,  and 
take  up  the  spit  and  rub  his  leg.  And  she  got  well 
after  that. 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       141 

There  was  another  man  in  that  island  besides 
that  neighbour  of  mine  that  would  give  the  drohuil 
— the  evil  eye.  Tom  Griffith  his  name  was.  There 
was  one  Flanagan  came  back  from  Clare  one  day 
with  three  bonifs  he  bought  there.  And  Griffith 
came  out  as  he  passed  and  said,  "No  better  bonifs 
than  those  ever  came  into  the  island. "  And  when 
Flanagan  came  home,  there  was  a  little  hill  in  the 
front  of  his  house  and  two  of  them  fell  down  against 
it  on  their  side.  And  when  Mrs.  Flanagan  came 
out  to  see  the  bonifs,  there  was  only  one  of  them 
living  before  her. 

There's  a  man  in  this  island  now  puts  the  evil 
eye — the  drohuil.  It's  about  four  years  since  I 
heard  of  him  doing  it  last.  There  was  a  nice  young 
woman  he  passed  and  he  said,  "You're  the  best 
walker  in  Aran."  And  that  day  she  got  a  pain  in 
her  leg  and  she  took  to  her  bed,  and  there  she  lay 
for  six  months,  and  then  she  sent  for  him,  and  he 
was  made — with  respects  to  you — to  throw  a  spit 
on  her.  And  after  that  she  got  well  and  got  up 
again.  And  there  was  a  child  died  about  the  same 
time,  and  the  friends  said  it  was  he  did  it. .  Ned 
Buckley  is  his  name.  Devil  a  foot  he  ever  goes  to 
a  wedding  or  such  like;  they  wouldn't  ask  him, 
they'd  be  afraid  of  him.  But  he  goes  to  Mass — at 
least  he  did  in  his  bloom — but  he's  an  old  man  now. 
Does  the  priest  know  about  him?  It's  not  likely 
he  does.  There's  no  one  would  like  to  go  and  make 
an  attack  on  him  like  that.     And  anyway  the 


142  Visions  and  Beliefs 

priests  don't  like  any  one  to  speak  to  them  of  such 
things,  they'd  sooner  not  hear  about  them. 

Mrs.  Folan: 

There  was  one  of  my  brothers  overlooked,  no 
doubt  at  all  about  that.  He  was  the  best  rower  of 
a  canoe  that  ever  was,  and  there  was  a  match  at 
Kin  vara  today  and  he  won  it,  and  there  was  a 
match  at  Ballyvaughan  tomorrow  and  he  was  in 
it,  and  the  foam  was  as  high  as  mountains,  that 
the  hooker  could  hardly  stand,  and  he  won  there. 
And  when  he  was  come  to  the  pier  and  the  people 
all  running  to  carry  him  in  their  arms,  the  way  the 
jockey  is  carried  after  a  race,  he  was  ruz  up  his 
own  height  off  the  ground,  and  no  one  could  see 
what  did  it. 

He  was  wrong  in  the  head  after  that,  and  he 
would  sit  by  the  hearth  without  speaking.  My 
mother  that  would  be  out  binding  the  wheat  would 
say  to  me  now  and  again  "  There  he  is  coming 
across  to  us, "  and  she  put  it  on  me  to  think  it,  but 
I  could  see  nothing,  for  it  is  not  everyone  can  see 
those  things.  Then  she  would  ask  the  father  when 
we  went  in,  did  he  stir  from  the  fireside,  and  when 
he  said  he  never  stirred  she  knew  it  was  his  shadow 
she  saw  and  that  he  had  not  long  to  live,  and  it 
was  not  long  till  he  was  gone. 

Mr.  Stephens: 

There  was  a  man  coming  along  the  road  from 
Gort  to  Garryland  one  night,  and  he  had  a  drop 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       143 

taken,  and  before  him  on  the  road  he  saw  a  pig 
walking.  And  having  a  drop  in,  he  gave  a  shout 
and  made  a  kick  at  it  and  bid  it  get  out  of  that. 

And  from  the  time  he  got  home,  his  arm  had 
swelled  from  the  shoulder  to  be  as  big  as  a  bag,  and 
he  couldn't  use  his  hand  with  the  pain  in  it.  And 
his  wife  brought  him  after  a  few  days  to  a  woman 
that  used  to  do  cures  at  Rahasane. 

And  on  the  road  all  she  could  do  would  hardly 
keep  him  from  lying  down  to  sleep  on  the  grass. 
And  when  they  got  to  the  woman,  she  knew  all 
that  happened,  and  says  she:  "It's  well  for  you 
that  your  wife  didn't  fall  asleep  on  the  grass,  for  if 
you  had  done  that  but  for  an  instant,  you'd  be  a 
gone  man." 

Mrs.  Casey: 

There  was  a  woman  lived  near  Ballinasloe  and 
she  had  two  children,  and  they  both  died,  one  after 
the  other.  And  when  the  third  was  born,  she 
consulted  an  old  woman,  and  she  said  to  watch  the 
cradle  all  day  where  it  was  standing  by  the  side  of 
the  fire.  And  so  she  did,  and  she  saw  a  sort  of  a 
shadow  come  into  it,  and  give  the  child  a  touch. 
And  she  came  in,  and  drove  it  away.  And  the 
second  day  the  same  thing  happened,  and  she  was 
afraid  that  the  third  time  the  child  would  go,  the 
same  as  the  others.  So  she  went  to  the  old  woman 
again,  and  she  bid  her  take  down  the  hanger  from 
the  chimney,  and  the  tongs  and  the  waistcoat  of  the 
child's  father  and  to  lay  them  across  the  cradle, 


144  Visions  and  Beliefs 

with  a  few  drops  of  water  from  a  blessed  well. 
So  she  did  all  this  and  laid  these  three  things  in 
the  cradle,  but  she  saw  the  shadow  or  whatever  it 
was  come  again,  and  she  ran  in  and  drove  it  away. 
But  when  she  told  the  old  woman  she  said  "  You 
need  trouble  yourself  no  more  about  it  being 
touched  or  not,  for  no  harm  will  come  to  it  if  you 
keep  those  three  things  on  it  for  twelve  days. "  So 
she  did  that,  and  reared  eight  children  after,  and 
never  lost  one. 

An  Old  Woman  from  Kinvara: 

Did  I  know  any  one  was  taken?  My  own  brother 
was,  and  no  mistake  about  it.  It  was  one  day  he 
was  out  following  two  horses  with  the  plough,  and 
it  was  about  five  o' clock,  for  a  gentleman  was 
passing  when  he  got  the  touch,  and  one  of  his  ten- 
ants asked  him  the  time,  and  he  said  five  o'clock. 
And  what  way  it  came  I  don't  know,  but  he  fell 
twice  on  the  stones — God  bless  the  hearers  and  the 
place  I'm  telling  it  in.  And  at  ten  o'clock  the  next 
morning  he  was  dead  in  his  bed.  Young  he  was, 
not  twenty  year,  and  nothing  ailed  him  when  he 
went  out,  but  the  place  he  was  ploughing  in  that 
day  was  a  bad  pass.  Sure  and  certain  I  am  it's  by 
them  he  was  taken.  I  used  often  to  hear  crying  in 
the  field  after,  but  I  never  saw  him  again. 

A  Connemara  Woman: 

There  was  a  boy  going  to  America,  and  when 
he  was  going  he  said  to  the  girl  next  door  "  Wher- 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       145 

ever  I  am,  when  you  are  married  I'll  come  back  to 
the  wedding";  and  not  long  after  he  went  to 
America  he  died.  And  when  the  girl  was  married 
and  all  the  friends  and  neighbours  in  the  house,  he 
appeared  in  the  room,  but  no  one  saw  him  but  his 
comrade  he  used  to  have  here,  and  the  girl's 
brother  saw  him  too,  but  no  one  else.  And  the 
comrade  followed  him  and  went  close  to  him  and 
said,  "Is  it  you  indeed?"  And  he  said,  "It  is,  and 
from  America  I  came  tonight."  And  he  asked, 
"How  long  did  that  journey  take?"  and  he  said, 
"Three-quarters  of  an  hour,"  and  then  he  went 
away.  And  the  comrade  was  never  the  better  of 
it,  or  he  got  the  touch  or  the  other  called  him,  very 
true  friends  as  they  were,  and  he  soon  died.  But 
the  girl  is  now  middle-aged  and  is  living  in  that 
house  we  are  just  after  passing  and  is  married  to 
one  Kelly. 

Whether  all  that  die  go  among  them  I  can't  say, 
but  it  is  said  they  can  take  no  one  without  the 
touch  of  a  Christian  hand,  or  the  want  of  a  bless- 
ing from  a  Christian  that  would  be  noticing  them. 

A  North  Galway  Woman : 

There  are  many  young  women  taken  in  child- 
birth.    I  lost  a  sister  of  my  own  in  that  way. 

There's  a  place  in  the  river  at  Newtown  where 
there's  stepping-stones  in  the  middle  you  can  get 
over  by,  and  one  day  she  was  crossing,  and  there 
in  the  middle  of  the  river,  and  she  standing  on  a 
stone,  she  felt  a  blow  on  the  face.    And  she  looked 

VOL.   I — 10 


146  Visions  and  Beliefs 

round  to  see  who  gave  it  and  there  was  no  one 
there,  so  then  she  knew  what  had  happened,  and 
she  came  to  the  mothers  house,  and  she  carrying 
at  the  time.  I  was  a  little  slip  at  that  time,  with 
my  books  in  my  hand  coming  from  school,  and  I 
ran  in  and  said  to  my  mother,  "Here's  Biddy 
coming, "  and  she  said,  "  What  would  bring  her  at 
this  time  of  day?"  But  she  came  in  and  sat  down 
on  a  chair  and  she  opened  the  whole  story,  and 
my  mother  said  to  quiet  her,  "It  was  only  a  pain 
in  the  ear  you  got,  and  you  thought  it  was  a  blow." 
And  she  said,  "  I  never  got  a  blow  that  hurted  me 
like  that. "  And  the  next  day,  and  every  day  after 
that,  the  ear  would  swell  a  little  in  the  afternoon, 
and  then  she  began  to  eat  nothing,  and  five  minutes 
after  her  baby  was  born  she  died.  And  my  mother 
used  to  watch  for  her  for  three  or  four  years  after, 
thinking  she'd  come  back,  but  she  never  did. 

There  was  a  forth  near  our  house  in  Meath,  and 
when  I  was  a  baby  a  woman  was  carrying  me  in 
her  arms,  and  she  walked  down  the  four  steps  that 
led  into  it,  and  there  was  a  nice  garden  around  it, 
and  she  slipped  and  fell,  and  my  cheek  struck 
against  one  of  the  steps — you  can  see  the  mark 
yet  that  I  got  there.  And  the  woman  told  my 
mother  and  said,  "It's  a  wonder  the  child  wasn't 
taken  altogether  then  and  there." 

One  day  I  was  out  digging  in  the  field  for  my 
brothers,  and  there  was  a  sort  of  a  half-ditch 
between  the  oats  and  the  potatoes,  and  I  was 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       147 

digging  ^  down,  and  of  a  sudden  a  sleep  came  on 
me  and  I  lay  down.  And  I  suppose  I  had  been 
asleep  about  twenty  minutes  when  I  was  waked 
with  a  hard  clout  on  the  face.  And  I  thought  it 
was  one  of  my  brothers  and  I  called  out,  "You 
have  no  right  to  give  me  a  clout  like  that. "  But 
my  brother  was  away  down  the  field,  and  came 
when  he  heard  me  calling.  And  I  felt  a  pain  in  my 
side  as  well,  and  I  went  into  the  house  and  didn't 
leave  it  for  two  months  after  with  pleurisy,  and 
the  pain  never  left  me  till  after  I  was  married. 
I  suppose  I  must  have  been  on  some  way  of 
theirs,  or  some  place  that  belonged  to  them  and 
that  was  known  to  be  an  enchanted  place,  and 
my  father  used  often  to  see  it  lighted  up  with 
candles. 

A  Man  Herding  Sheep: 

I'll  tell  you  now  what  happened  to  a  little  one 
of  my  own.  She  was  just  five  years.  And  the  day 
I'm  speaking  of  she  was  running  to  school  down 
the  path  before  me,  as  strong  and  as  funny  as  the 
day  she  was  born,  and  laughing  and  looking  back 
at  me.  And  that  night  she  went  to  bed  as  well  as 
ever  she  was.  And  it  was  about  eleven  o'clock 
in  the  night  she  awoke  and  gave  a  great  cry,  and 
she  said  there  was  a  great  pain  in  her  knee,  and  it 
was  in  no  other  part  of  her.  And  in  the  morning 
she  had  it  yet,  and  her  walk  had  gone,  and  I  lifted 
her  and  brought  her  out  into  the  street,  and  she 
couldn't  walk  one  step  if  you  were  to  give  her  the 


148  Visions  and  Beliefs 

three  isles  of  Aran.  And  she  lived  for  two  nights 
after  that. 

When  the  doctor  came  and  I  told  him,  he  said 
it  was  the  strangest  case  he  ever  heard  of,  and  the 
schoolmistress  said,  "I  thought  if  I'd  brought  that 
child  to  the  hill  beyond  and  threw  her  down  into 
the  sea  it  would  do  her  no  harm,  she  was  that 
strong." 

But  if  such  things  happen,  it  happened  to  her, 
and  touched  she  was.  It  was  not  death,  it  was 
being  took  away. 

An  Old  Woman  in  an  Aran  village: 

I'll  tell  you  what  happened  a  son  of  my  own 
that  was  so  strong  and  so  handsome  and  so  good  a 
dancer,  he  was  mostly  the  pride  of  the  island.  And 
he  was  that  educated  that  when  he  was  twenty-six 
years,  he  could  write  a  letter  to  the  Queen.  And 
one  day  a  pain  came  in  the  thigh,  and  a  little  lump 
came  inside  it,  and  a  hole  in  it  that  you  could 
hardly  put  the  point  of  a  pin  in,  and  it  was  always 
drawing.  And  he  took  to  his  bed  and  was  there 
for  eleven  months.  And  every  night  when  it 
would  be  twelve  o'clock,  he  would  begin  to  be 
singing  and  laughing  and  going  on.  And  what  the 
neighbours  said  was,  that  it  was  at  that  hour  there 
was  some  other  left  in  his  place.  I  never  went  to 
any  one  or  any  witchcraft,  for  my  husband  wouldn't 
let  me  but  left  it  to  the  will  of  God ;  and  anyway  at 
the  end  of  the  eleven  months  he  died. 

And  his  sister  was  in  America,  and  the  same 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       149 

thing  came  to  her  there,  a  little  lump  by  the  side  of 
the  face,  and  she  came  home  to  die.  But  she  died 
quiet  and  was  like  any  other  in  the  night. 

And  a  daughter-in-law  of  mine  died  after  the 
second  birth,  and  even  the  priest  said  it  was  not 
dead  she  was,  he  that  was  curate  then.  I  was 
surprised  the  priest  to  say  that,  for  they  mostly 
won't  give  in  to  it,  unless  it's  one  that  takes  a  drop 
of  drink. 

An  Old  Man  in  the  Kitchen: 

I  had  a  son  that  it  was  mostly  given  in  to  in 
Aran  to  be  the  best  singer  to  give  out  a  couple  of 
verses,  so  that  he'd  hardly  go  out  of  the  house  but 
some  one  would  want  to  be  bringing  him  into 
theirs.  And  he  took  sick  of  a  sudden,  with  a  pain 
in  the  shoulder.  I  went  to  the  doctor  and  he  says, 
"Does  your  wife  take  tea?"  "She  does  when  she 
can  get  it;"  says  I,  and  he  told  me  then  to  put  the 
spout  of  the  kettle  to  where  the  pain  was.  And 
after  that  he  went  to  Galway  Hospital,  but  he  got 
no  better  there  and  a  Sister  of  Mercy  said  to  him 
at  last,  "I'm  thinking  by  the  look  of  you,  your 
family  at  home  is  poor."  "That's  true  enough," 
says  he.  Then  says  she :  "It's  best  for  you  to  stop 
here,  and  they'll  be  free  from  the  cost  of  burying 
you. "  But  he  said  he'd  sooner  go  die  at  home,  if 
he  had  but  two  days  to  live  there.  So  he  came  back 
and  he  didn't  last  long.  It's  always  the  like  of 
him  that's  taken,  that  are  good  for  singing  or 
dancing  or  for  any  good  thing  at  all.    And  young 


150  Visions  and  Beliefs 

women  are  often  taken  in  that  way,  both  in  the 
middle  island  and  in  this. 

Patrick  Madden: 

I'll  tell  you  how  I  lost  the  first  son  I  had.  He 
was  just  three  years  old  and  as  fine  and  as  strong 
as  any  child  you'd  see.  And  one  day  my  wife  said 
she'd  bring  the  child  to  her  mother's  house  to  stop 
the  evening  with  her,  for  I  was  going  out.  And 
there  was  a  neighbour  of  ours,  a  man  that  lived 
near  us,  and  no  one  was  the  better  of  being  spoken 
to  by  him.  And  as  they  were  passing  his  house  he 
came  out,  and  he  said,  "That's  the  finest  child 
that's  in  the  island."  And  a  woman  that  was 
passing  at  the  same  time  stopped  and  said,  "It 
was  the  smallest  that  ever  I  saw  the  day  it  was 
born,  God  bless  it. "  And  the  mother  knew  what 
she  meant,  and  she  wanted  to  say  "God  bless 
him, "  but  it  was  like  as  if  a  hand  took  and  held  her 
throat,  and  choked  her  that  she  couldn't  say  the 
words.  And  when  I  came  to  the  mother's  house, 
and  began  to  make  fun  with  the  child,  I  saw  a 
round  mark  on  the  side  of  his  head,  the  size  of  a 
crown  piece.  And  I  said  to  the  wife,"  Why  would 
you  beat  the  child  in  the  head,  why  don't  you  get 
a  little  rod  to  beat  him  if  he  wants  it?"  And  she 
said  that  she  had  never  touched  him  at  all. 

And  at  that  time  I  was  very  much  given  to 
playing  cards,  and  that  night  I  went  out  to  a 
friend's  house  to  play.  And  the  wife  before  she 
went  to  bed  broiled  a  bit  of  fish  and  put  it  on  a 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       151 

plate  with  potatoes,  and  put  it  in  a  box  in  the 
room,  for  fear  it  might  be  touched  by  a  cat  or  a 
rat  or  such  like.  But  I  was  late  coming  in  and 
didn't  mind  to  eat  it.  And  the  next  night  I  was 
out  again.  And  when  we  were  playing  cards  we'd 
play  first  with  tobacco  and  we'd  go  on  to  tea,  and 
we'd  end  up  with  whiskey.  And  the  next  morning 
when  the  wife  opened  the  box  she  laughed  and  she 
said  "You  didn't  drink  your  tea  when  you  were 
out  last  night,  for  I  see  you  have  your  dinner 
eaten."  And  I  said,  "Why  should  you  say  that? 
I  never  touched  it."  And  she  held  up  the  plate 
and  showed  me  that  the  potatoes  were  taken  off 
it ;  but  the  fish  wasn't  touched,  for  it  was  a  bit  of 
a  herring  and  salty. 

Well,  the  child  was  getting  sick  all  the  day,  and 
I  didn't  go  out  that  evening.  And  in  the  night  we 
could  hear  the  noise  as  if  of  scores  of  rats,  going 
about  the  room.  And  every  now  and  again  I 
struck  a  light,  but  so  soon  as  the  light  was  in  it 
we'd  hear  nothing.  But  the  noise  would  begin 
again  as  soon  as  it  was  dark,  and  sometimes  it 
would  seem  as  if  they  came  up  on  the  bed,  and  I 
could  feel  the  weight  of  them  on  my  chest  as  if 
they  would  smother  me. 

And  in  the  morning  I  chanced  to  open  the  box 
where  the  dinner  used  to  be  put,  and  it  as  big  a  box 
as  any  in  Aran,  and  when  I  opened  it  I  saw  it  was 
all  full  of  blood,  up  the  sides  and  to  the  top,  that 
you  couldn't  put  your  hand  in  without  it  getting 
bloody.    I  said  nothing  but  shut  the  lid  down  again. 


152  Visions  and  Beliefs 

But  after,  when  I  came  into  the  house,  I  saw  the 
wife  rubbing  at  it  with  a  thing  they  call  flannel 
they  got  at  Killinny,  and  I  asked  her  what  was 
she  doing,  and  she  said,  "I'm  cleaning  the  box, 
where  it's  full  of  blood."  And  after  that  I  gave 
up  the  child  and  I  had  no  more  hope  for  its  life. 
But  if  they  had  told  me  that  about  the  neighbour 
speaking  to  him,  I'd  have  gone  over,  and  I'd  have 
killed  him  with  my  stick,  but  I'd  have  made  him 
come  and  spit  on  him.  After  that  we  didn't  hear 
the  noise  the  same  again,  but  we  heard  like  the 
sound  of  a  clock  all  through  the  night  and  every 
night.  And  the  child  got  a  swelling  under  the  feet, 
and  he  couldn't  put  a  foot  to  the  ground.  But 
that  made  little  difference  to  him,  for  he  didn't 
hold  out  a  week. 

I  lost  another  son  after — but  he  died  natural, 
there  was  nothing  of  that  sort.  And  I  have  one 
son  remaining  now,  and  one  day  he  went  to  sleep 
out  in  a  field  and  that's  a  bad  thing  to  do.  And 
the  sister  found  him  there,  and  when  she  woke  him 
he  couldn't  get  up  hardly,  or  move  his  hand,  and 
she  had  to  help  him  to  the  house. 

Pat  Doherty: 

I  know  a  gentleman  too  got  the  touch,  one  of  the 
Butlers.  It  was  on  a  day  he  made  a  great  leap  he 
got  it.  And  he  went  to  the  bed  and  for  three  or 
four  days  he  couldn't  stir,  and  red  marks  came 
out  over  him  shaped  like  a  bow.    And  then  I  went 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       153 

for  the  priest  and  brought  him  to  see  him,  and 
when  he  heard  of  the  marks,  "I'm  as  bad  as  that 
myself,"  he  said,  making  fun ;  "  for  I'm  after  making 
a  journey  in  a  curragh."  But  when  the  clothes 
were  stripped  back  and  he  saw  his  skin,  "Oh,  mur- 
der!" he  said,  and  he  put  on  his  stole  and  got  out 
a  book.  And  he  said,  "Did  you  hear  what  I  did 
to  the  man  at  Iona?  He  went  to  the  well  with  a  tin 
can  for  water,  and  when  he  got  to  the  well,  a  few 
yards  away  from  it,  it  was  spilled.  And  he  went 
back  and  filled  it  again,  and  the  second  time  at  the 
well  it  was  spilled,  and  he  fell  along  with  it,  and  he 
got  a  little  cut  in  the  fall,  and  he  began  to  bleed, 
and  all  the  people  said  as  much  blood  as  would  be 
in  three  men  came  away  from  him.  And  they  sent 
for  me,  and  the  minute  I  came  the  bleeding  stopped, 
and  he  was  all  right  again  and  the  cut  closed  up. " 

And  then  he  put  his  head  down  and  what  he 
read  I  don't  know,  but  he  hardly  got  to  the  turn 
of  the  road  outside  the  house,  when  the  boy  stood 
up  from  the  bed  and  asked  for  something  to  eat. 

Another  time  I  was  drawing  turf  that  came  in 
the  boats  from  Connemara  to  Kilronan  pier.  And 
of  a  sudden  there  came  a  swelling  in  my  arm,  and 
it  was  next  day  the  size  of  an  egg,  and  it  turned 
black.  And  I  couldn't  lift  the  arm,  and  Healy  the 
coast-guard  said  to  me  to  go  to  Doctor  Lydon. 
And  I  said  I  would,  but  in  the  way  I  met  with 
Father  Jordan  and  I  showed  it  to  him.  And  he 
said;  "What  do  you  want  with  your  Healy  and 


154  Visions  and  Beliefs 

your  Lydons?  Let  me  see  it. "  And  he  pressed  his 
hand  on  it  two  or  three  times  like  that,  and  the 
swelling  began  to  go,  and  when  I  got  home  they 
were  clearing  weed  on  the  shore,  and  I  was  able 
to  go  down  and  to  give  them  a  hand  with  it. 

A  Piper: 

There  was  a  cousin  of  my  own  used  to  feel  some 
heavy  thing  coming  on  him  in  the  bed  in  the  night 
time.  And  he  went  to  the  friars  at  Esker  to  take 
it  off  of  him,  and  they  took  it  off.  But  Father 
Williams  said,  "  If  this  is  gone  from  you  some  other 
thing  will  be  put  on  you."  And  sure  enough  it 
wasn't  a  twelvemonth  after,  he  was  carting  planks 
and  the  horse  fell,  and  the  planks  fell  on  his  foot 
and  broke  it  in  two  pieces.  And  after  that  again 
he  got  a  fall,  over  some  stones,  and  he  died  with 
throwing  off  blood. 

I  had  a  fall  myself  in  Galway  the  other  day  that 
I  couldn't  move  my  arm  to  play  the  pipes  if  you 
gave  me  Ireland.  And  a  man  said  to  me — and 
they  are  very  smart  people  in  Galway — that  two 
or  three  got  a  fall  and  a  hurt  in  that  same  place. 
"There  is  places  in  the  sea  where  there  is  drown- 
ing, "  he  said,  "and  places  on  the  land  as  well  where 
there  do  be  accidents,  and  no  man  can  save  himself 
from  them,  for  it  is  the  Will  of  God. " 

Mrs.  Scanlon: 

Some  people  call  Mrs.  Tobin  "Biddy  Early." 
She  has  done  a  good  many  cures.  Her  brother 
was  away  for   a   while    and   it   was    from   him 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       155 

she  got  the  knowledge.  I  believe  that  it's  before 
sunrise  that  she  gathers  the  herbs,  anyway  no 
one  ever  saw  her  gathering  them.  (Note  38.) 
She  has  saved  many  a  woman  from  being  brought 
away  when  their  child  was  born,  by  whatever 
she  does.  She  told  me  herself  that  one  night 
when  she  was  going  to  the  lodge  gate  to  at- 
tend the  woman  there,  three  magpies  came 
before  her  and  began  roaring  into  her  mouth, 
to  try  to  drive  her  back.  Father  Folan  must 
know  about  her,  but  he  is  a  dark  man  and 
says  nothing,  and  anyway  the  priests  know  as 
much,  and  are  as  much  in  dread  as  any  one 
else. 

I  wish  I  had  sent  for  her  for  my  own  little  boy. 
It's  often  he  asked  me  to  bring  him  to  the  friars 
at  Loughrea.  But  he  never  would  tell  how  or 
where  he  got  the  touch.  It  came  like  a  lump  in  the 
back,  and  he  got  weaker  and  smaller  till  you  could 
put  him  into  a  tin  can,  and  he  twenty  years.  Often 
I  asked  him  about  it,  but  he'd  say  nothing.  I 
believe  that  they  are  afraid  to  tell  or  they  would 
be  worse  treated.  I  asked  him  was  it  at  the  jump- 
ing, for  they  used  to  be  jumping  over  a  pole,  and 
he  said  it  was  not,  and  that  he  never  took  a  jump 
that  was  too  much  for  him. 

But  some  that  saw  his  back  said  he  had  been 
beat.  And  when  the  Doctor  came  in  to  see  him, 
he  was  lying  on  the  bed,  and  he  turned  him  over 
and  looked  at  him  and  said,  "If  he  had  all  Lady 
Gregory's  estate  he  couldn't  live  a  week."  And 
sure  enough  within  five  days  he  died.    And  many 


156  Visions  and  Beliefs  ' 

of  the  neighbours  said  they  never  heard  such  a 
storm  of  wind  as  rose  about  the  house  that  night. 
I  never  saw  him  since,  and  I  went  late  and  early,  in 
the  mill  and  down  by  the  river.  But  it's  maybe  a 
hundred  or  two  hundred  miles  he  was  brought 
away. 

Tom  Flatley: 

There  is  a  priest  now,  a  curate  down  in  Clough- 
more,  is  doing  great  cures.  There  is  often  silence 
between  him  and  the  parish  priest,  Father  Rock, 
for  he  wouldn't  like  him  to  be  doing  them.  There 
was  a  little  chap  went  to  bed  one  night  as  well  as 
yourself,  and  in  the  morning  he  rose  up  with  one 
of  his  ears  as  deaf  as  that  he  wouldn't  hear  you  if 
he  died.  And  the  mother  brought  him  to  Father 
Dolan  and  he  came  out  as  well  as  ever  he  was.  It 
was  but  a  fortnight  ago  that  happened,  and  I 
didn't  hear  did  the  misfortune  fall  on  any  of  the 
stock. 

But  wherever  there  is  a  cure  something  will  go, 
and  what  would  a  sheep  or  a  heifer  be  beside  a 
misfortune  on  a  child? 

There  was  a  priest  near  Ennis,  a  woman  I  knew 
went  to  for  a  cure,  and  he  wouldn't  do  it.  u  Tha 
me  bocht,"  he  said,  "I  am  poor,  but  I  will  not  do 
it."  "I  will  pay  you  well,"  said  the  woman.  "I 
will  not  do  it,"  said  he,  "for  my  heart  was  killed 
two  years  ago  with  one  I  did.  And  it  isn't  money 
I'd  ask  of  you  if  I  did  it,"  he  said,  "but  to  offer 
you  my  blessing  and  the  blessing  of  God." 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       157 

Mrs.  Casey: 

There  was  a  woman  down  by  the  sea  that  had  a 
very  severe  time  when  her  baby  was  born,  and 
they  did  not  think  she  or  the  baby  would  live  after. 
So  the  husband  went  and  brought  Father  Rivers 
and  he  said,  "Which  would  you  sooner  lose — the 
wife  or  the  child — for  one  must  go?"  And  the 
husband  said,  ' '  If  the  wife  is  taken  I  might  as  well 
close  the  door."  And  then  Father  Rivers  said, 
"She's  going  up  and  down  like  the  swinging  of  a 
clock,  but  for  all  that  I'll  strive  to  keep  her  for 
you,  but  maybe  you  must  lose  two  or  more." 
So  he  read  some  prayers  over  her,  and  the  next 
day  the  baby  died,  and  a  fine  cow  out  in  the  field, 
but  the  woman  recovered  and  is  living  still.  But 
Father  Rivers  died  within  two  years.  They  never 
live  long  when  they  do  these  cures,  because  that 
they  say  prayers  that  they  ought  not  to  say. 

There's  Father  Heseltine  of  Killinan  has  lost 
his  health  and  no  person  knows  where  he  is.  They 
say  he's  gone  abroad  because  he  did  a  cure  on  one 
of  his  sisters. 

Mrs.  Cassilis: 

A  young  mare  I  lost.  It  was  on  the  15th  August, 
something  came  on  it  in  the  field,  and  it  did  no 
good,  and  the  son  was  tending  it.  And  on  S. 
Colman's  Day  he  was  taken  with  a  weakness  in 
the  chapel  that  they  had  to  bring  him  home,  and 
he  did  not  go  fasting  to  the  chapel.     He  got  well, 


158  Visions  and  Beliefs 

but  the  mare  died.  I  didn't  mind  that,  I  knew 
something  must  go,  and  it  was  better  the  mare 
to  go  than  the  son. 

There  were  many  said,  the  mare  not  to  have 
died  there  would  be  no  chance  for  him.  So  I  am 
well  content,  for  whatever  way  we'll  struggle  we 
might  get  another  mare.  But  a  person  to  go, 
there  is  no  one  for  you  to  get  in  his  place. 

A  County  Galway  Magistrate: 

That  time  I  was  laid  up  at  Luke  Manning's  they 
sent  for  Father  Heseltine  to  "read  a  gospel"  over 
me.  He  said  when  he  came  in,  "You'll  lose  some- 
thing tonight."  I  heard  him  say  this,  but  what 
he  read  over  me  I  don't  know,  it  seemed  a  sort  of 
muttering.  At  all  events  I  got  well  after  it,  and 
the  next  morning,  a  sheep  was  found  dead. 

Pat  Hayden: 

My  father  was  gardener  here  at  Coole  in  the 
time  of  Mr.  Robert's  grandfather.  He  was  sick 
one  time,  and  he  thought  to  go  to  the  friars  at 
Esker  for  a  cure,  and  he  asked  Mr.  Gregory  for  the 
loan  of  a  horse,  and  he  bade  him  to  take  it.  So  he 
saddled  and  bridled  the  horse,  and  he  set  out  one 
morning  and  went  to  the  friars,  and  whatever  they 
did  they  cured  him,  and  he  came  back  again.  But 
in  the  morning  the  horse  was  found  dead  in  the 
stable.  I  suppose  whatever  they  took  off  him 
they  put  upon  the  horse.  And  when  Mr.  Gregory 
came  out  in  the  morning,  "How  is  Pat?"  he  says 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       159 

to  one  of  the  men.  "Pat  is  well,"  says  he,  "but 
the  horse  he  brought  with  him  is  dead  in  the 
stable."  "So  long  as  Pat  is  well,"  said  Mr. 
Gregory,  "I  wouldn't  mind  if  five  horses  in  the 
stable  were  dead." 

Mrs.  Manning: 

There  was  a  friar  in  Esker  could  do  cures.  Many 
I've  seen  brought  to  him  tied  in  a  cart,  and  able 
to  walk  home  after.  Father  Callaghan  he  was. 
There  was  one  man  brought  to  him,  wrong  in  his 
head  he  was,  and  he  cured  him  and  he  gave  him 
some  sort  of  a  Gospel  rolled  up,  and  bid  him  to 
put  it  about  his  neck,  and  never  to  take  it  off. 
Well,  he  went  to  America  after  that  and  was  as 
well  as  another  and  got  work,  and  sent  home  £10 
one  time  to  Father  Callaghan  he  was  that  grateful 
to  him. 

But  one  day  in  America  he  was  shaving,  and 
whether  he  cut  the  string  or  that  he  took  it  off  I 
don't  know,  but  he  laid  the  charm  down  on  a  table. 
And  when  he  looked  for  it  again,  if  he  was  to  burn 
the  house  down  he  couldn't  find  it.  And  it  all  came 
back  on  him  again,  and  he  was  as  bad  as  he  was 
before. 

So  the  wife  wrote  home  to  Father  Callaghan, 
and  he  sent  out  another  thing  of  the  same  sort; 
and  bid  him  wear  it,  and  from  the  time  he  put  it  on, 
he  got  well  again.  A  priest  has  the  power  to  do 
cures,  but  if  he  does  he  can  keep  nothing,  one  thing 
will  die  after  another. 


160  Visions  and  Beliefs 

Biddy  Early  could  do  the  same  thing,  she  had 
to  cast  the  sickness  on  some  other  thing — it  might 
be  a  dog  or  a  goat  or  a  bird. 

Priests  can  do  cures  if  they  will,  but  they  are 
afraid  to  do  them  because  their  stock  will  die,  and 
because  they  are  afraid  of  loss  in  the  other  world  as 
well  as  in  this.  There's  a  neighbour  of  your  own 
lost  his  milch  cow  the  other  day  for  a  small  one 
he  did, — Father  Mulhall  that  is. 

There  was  Father  Rivers  was  called  in  to  a  woman 
that  was  bad,  between  Roxborough  and  Dunsandle. 
And  he  said  to  the  father,"  Which  would  you  sooner 
keep,  the  wife  or  the  child?"  And  he  said,  "Sure 
I'd  sooner  have  the  wife  than  all  the  children  of  the 
world. "  So  Father  Rivers  went  in  and  cured  her 
so  that  she  got  well,  but  he  put  whatever  she  had 
on  the  son,  so  that  he  grew  up  an  idiot.  Harmless 
he  used  to  be,  not  doing  much.  Well,  when  he 
came  to  twenty  years,  the  mother  said,  "Come 
outside  into  the  field,  and  cut  the  eyes  of  a  few 
stone  of  potatoes  for  me."  But  he  took  up  the 
graip  that  was  at  the  door  and  made  at  her  to  kill 
her.  And  she  ran  in  and  shut  the  door,  and  then 
he  made  for  the  window  and  broke  it.  And  at  that 
time  Mr.  Singleton  from  Ceramina  was  passing 
by,  and  he  stopped  and  called  some  men  and  they 
took  him  and  took  the  graip  from  him,  and  he  was 
brought  away  to  Ballinasloe  Asylum,  but  he  didn't 
live  more  than  six  months  after.   Waiting  all  that 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       161 

time  he  was  to  do  his  revenge,  but  hadn't  the 
power  to  do  it  till  the  twenty  years  were  up. 

There  is  a  man  that  is  living  strong  and  well  in 
the  village  of  Lochlan  and  that  has  sixteen  or 
seventeen  children,  and  one  time  something  came 
on  him  and  he  wore  away  till  there  was  no  more 
strength  in  him  than  in  that  thraneen.  And  there 
was  an  old  woman  used  to  be  doing  cures  with 
herbs,  and  he  sent  for  her,  and  she  went  out  into 
the  field  and  she  picked  two  or  three  leaves  of  a 
plant  she  knew  of.  And  as  she  was  carrying  it 
through  the  fields  to  the  house  she  fell  dead. 

And  his  strength  came  back  to  him  when  the 
death  fell  on  her  and  he  was  as  well  and  as  strong 
as  ever  he  was.  I  will  bring  you  three  of  those 
leaves  if  I  have  to  walk  two  miles — three-cornered 
leaves  they  are  (penny  royal).  No  harm  will  come 
upon  me,  for  I  am  nothing  but  an  old  hag.  Before 
sunrise  they  must  be  picked,  and  the  best  day  to 
do  it  is  a  Friday. 

An  Old  Army  Man : 

I  knew  a  man  had  charms  for  headache  and  for 
toothache  and  other  things,  and  he  did  a  great 
many  cures,  but  all  his  own  children  began  to  die. 
So  then  he  put  away  the  charms,  and  made  a 
promise  not  to  do  cures  for  others  again ;  and  after 
that  he  lost  no  more  children. 

Priests  can  do  cures  as  well  as  Biddy  Early  did, 
and  there  was  a  man  of  the  neighbours  digging 

TOL.  I — II 


162  Visions  and  Beliefs 

potatoes  in  that  field  beyond,  and  a  woman  passed 
by,  and  she  never  said  anything.  And  presently 
the  top  of  his  ringers  got  burned  off,  and  he  called 
out  with  the  pain,  a  blast  he  got  from  her  as  she 
passed.  Often  he'd  come  into  this  house,  and 
crying  out  with  the  hurt  of  the  pain.  And  at  last 
he  went  to  the  priests  at  Esker,  and  they  cured 
him,  but  they  said,  "Your  own  priests  could  have 
done  the  same  for  you. "  And  when  he  came  back 
there  were  two  cows  dead. 

And  the  same  thing  when  Carey's  wife — that  is  a 
tenant  of  your  own — was  sick,  they  called  in 
Father  Gardiner  and  he  cured  her,  and  he  told 
them  to  watch  by  her  for  two  or  three  days.  And 
then  the  priest  went  out  to  see  the  stabling,  and 
Carey  with  him,  for  Carey  had  always  a  pair  of 
good  horses.  And  when  they  went  into  the  stable, 
the  horses  were  dead  before  them. 

It  was  Flaherty  gave  his  life  for  my  sister  that 
was  his  wife.  When  she  fell  sick  he  brought  her  to 
Biddy  Early  in  the  mountains  beyond.  And  she 
cured  her  the  first  time.  But  she  said,  "If  you 
bring  her  again,  you'll  pay  the  penalty."  But 
when  she  fell  sick  again  he  brought  her,  but  he 
stopped  a  mile  from  the  house.  But  she  knew  it 
well,  and  told  the  wife  where  he  was,  and  that  time 
the  horse  died.  But  the  third  time  she  fell  sick 
he  went  again,  knowing  full  well  he'd  pay  the 
penalty;  and  so  he  did  and  died.  But  she  was 
cured;  and  married  one  O'Dea  afterwards. 


Evil  Eye — Touch — Penalty       163 

The  priests  know  well  about  these  things,  but 
they  won't  let  on  to  have  seen  them,  and  the  people 
don't  much  like  to  be  telling  them  about  them. 
But  there  was  Father  Gallagher  that  did  cures  by- 
means  of  them,  and  at  last  he  got  a  touch  himself, 
and  was  sent  for  a  while  to  an  asylum,  and  now  he 
has  promised  to  leave  them  alone.  Fallen  angels 
some  say  they  are.  I  know  a  man  that  saw  them 
hurling  up  there  in  Hanlon's  field.  Red  caps  they 
wore  and  looked  very  diminutive,  but  they  were 
hurling  away  like  Old  Boots. 

The  way  the  bad  luck  came  on  Tom  Hurley  was 
when  a  cow  fell  sick  on  him  and  lay  like  dead.  He 
had  a  right  to  leave  it  or  to  kill  it ;  but  the  father- 
in-law  cut  a  bit  off  the  leg  of  it  and  it  rose  again, 
and  they  sold  it  for  seven  pounds  at  the  fair  of 
Tubber.  But  he  had  no  luck  since  then,  but  lost 
four  or  five  head  of  cattle,  near  all  that  he  owned. 

There  was  a  man  did  a  cure  on  his  son  that 
came  from  America  sick.  He  didn't  like  to  see  him 
ailing,  and  one  night  he  did  the  cure.  But  before 
sunrise  the  sight  of  one  of  his  eyes  was  gone. 

A  Mountainy  Man: 

There's  some  people  living  about  three  miles 
from  here  on  Slieve-Mor,  and  they  came  from  the 
North  at  the  time  of  the  famine,  and  they  can  do 
cures,  but  they  don't  like  to  say  much  about  it — 
for  the  people  of  the  North  all  have  it.     Their 


164  Visions  and  Beliefs 

names  are  natural,  McManus,  and  Irwin  and 
Taylor.  There's  one  of  them  gave  a  cure  for  a 
man  that  was  sick,  and  he  grew  better,  but  a  calf 
died.  And  the  son  was  going  to  him  again,  but  the 
mother  said:  "Let  him  alone,  let  him  die,  or  we'll 
lose  all  the  stock";  for  she'd  sooner  have  the 
husband  die  than  any  other  beast.  So  the  son  was 
out  and  he  met  the  man,  and  he  said,  "It  is  to  me 
you're  coming?"  And  the  son  said  it  was,  for  he 
didn't  like  to  tell  about  what  his  mother  said  or 
about  the  death  of  the  calf.  So  the  man  got  him  a 
bottle,  and  said  he'd  come  home  with  him,  but 
when  they  were  on  the  road  they  met  some  one 
that  spoke  of  the  death  of  the  calf.  So  when  the 
man  heard  that,  he  was  angry  and  he  said,  "If  I 
knew  that  I  wouldn't  have  helped  you,"  and  he 
broke  the  bottle  against  the  wall.  So  the  father 
died,  and  the  wife  kept  the  stock — a  very  unkind 
woman  she  was. 

There  was  a  woman  of  my  village  never  put  a 
shoe  on  her  feet  from  the  time  of  her  birth  till  the 
time  of  her  death.  Doing  a  penance  she  said  she 
was.  And  she  never  married  and  would  never  eat 
meat. 

As  to  cures,  there's  none  can  do  them  like  the 
priests  can,  if  they  will.  There  was  a  woman  I 
knew,  and  her  little  boy  was  sick  and  couldn't 
move.  And  she  got  the  priest  to  come  and  do  a 
cure  on  him,  but  no  one  knew  what  he  did.    And 


Evil  Eye— Touch — Penalty       165 

often  he  said  to  the  woman :  "You  have  a  horse  and 
a  pony,  and  which  do  you  value  the  most?"  And 
she  said  she  valued  the  pony  the  most.  And  next 
day  the  horse  had  died,  but  the  little  boy  got  well. 

A  Man  of  the  Islands: 

There's  an  old  woman  here  now — there  she  is 
passing  the  road — that  does  cures  with  herbs.  But 
last  year  she  got  a  sore  hand  and  she  had  to  go  to 
the  hospital,  and  before  she  came  back  they  took 
two  ringers  off  her.  And  there's  no  luck  about 
bone-setters  either.  There's  one  here  on  the 
island  and  a  good  many  go  to  him.  But  he  had 
but  one  son  and  he  never  did  any  good,  and  now 
he's  gone  away  from  him. 

John  Curtis: 

When  Father  Callan  was  a  curate  he  did  a  cure 
for  me  one  time  for  my  cattle,  and  I  gave  him  half 
a  sovereign  in  his  hand  for  it,  in  this  road.  It  was 
the  time  I  had  so  much  trouble,  and  my  brothers 
trying  to  rob  me,  and  but  for  our  landlord  I  would- 
n't have  kept  the  farm.  And  all  my  stock  began  to 
die.  There  was  hardly  a  day  I'd  come  out  but 
I'd  see  maybe  two  or  three  sheep  lying  there  in  the 
field  with  froth  at  their  mouths,  and  they  turning 
black.  The  same  thing  was  happening  Tommy 
Hare's  stock,  and  he  went  to  Father  Callan 
and  he  came  to  the  house  and  read  some  sort  of  a 
Mass  and  took  the  sickness  off  them.  So  then  I 
went  to  him  myself,  and  he  said  he'd  read  a  Mass 


166  Visions  and  Beliefs 

in  the  chapel  for  me,  and  so  he  did.  And  the  stock 
were  all  right  from  that  time,  and  the  day  he  came 
to  see  them  and  that  I  gave  him  the  money,  there 
ran  a  dog  out  of  Roche's  house  and  came  behind 
the  priest  and  gave  him  a  bite  in  the  leg,  that  he 
had  to  go  to  Dublin  to  cut  it  out.  Why  did  the 
dog  do  it?  He  did  it  because  he  was  mad  when  he 
saw  the  stock  getting  well.  And  weren't  the 
Roches  queer  people  that  they  wouldn't  kill  the 
dog  when  the  priest  wanted  it,  the  way  he'd  be 
in  no  danger  if  the  dog  would  go  mad  after? 


IV 

AWAY 


167 


IV 
AWAY 

PWYLL,  Prince  of Dyved  .  .  .  let  loose  the  dogs 
in  the  wood  and  sounded  the  horn  and  began 
the  chase.  And  as  he  followed  the  dogs  he  lost  his 
companions;  and  while  he  listened  to  the  hounds  he 
heard  the  cry  of  other  hounds,  a  cry  different  from  his 
own,  and  comingin  the  opposite  direction.  .  .  .  And 
he  saw  a  horseman  coming  towards  him  on  a  large 
light-grey  steed  with  a  hunting  horn  round  his  neck, 
and  clad  in  garments  of  grey  woollen  in  the  fashion 
of  a  hunting  garb,  and  the  horseman  drew  near  and 
spoke  to  him  thus:  ...  "A  crowned  King  I  am 
in  the  land  whence  I  come .  .  .  .  There  is  a  man 
whose  dominions  are  opposite  to  mine,  who  is  ever 
warring  against  me,  and  by  ridding  me  of  this  op- 
pression  which  thou  can'st  easily  do,  shalt  thou  gain 
my  friendship.11  il  Gladly  will  I  do  this,11  said  he. 
* '  Show  me  how  I  may. w  "I  will  show  thee.  Behold, 
thus  it  is  thou  may  est.  I  will  send  thee  to  Annwyvn 
in  my  stead,  and  I  will  give  thee  the  fairest  lady  thou 
didst  ever  befrold  to  be  thy  companion,  and  I  will  put 
my  form  and  semblance  upon  thee,  so  that  not  a  page 
of  the  chamber  nor  an  officer  nor  any  other  man  that 
•      169 


170  Visions  and  Beliefs 

has  always  followed  me  shall  know  that  it  is  not  I. 
And  this  shall  be  for  the  space  of  a  year  from  tomor- 
row and  then  we  will  meet  in  this  place. "  .  .  . 
"Verily,"  said  Pwyll,  "what  shall  I  do  concerning 
my  kingdom  ? ' '  Said  A  rawn  :  "  I  will  cause  that  no 
one  in  all  thy  dominions,  neither  man  nor  woman, 
shall  know  that  I  am  not  thou,  and  I  will  go  there 
in  thy  stead." — "The  Mabinogion."  > 


/  was  told  by  a  Man  of  Slieve  Ecktge: 
That  girl  of  the  Cohens  that  was  away  seven 
year,  she  was  bid  tell  nothing  of  what  she  saw,  but 
she  told  her  mother  some  things  and  told  of  some 
she  met  there.  There  was  a  woman — a  cousin  of 
my  own — asked  was  her  son  over  there,  and  she 
had  to  press  her  a  long  time,  but  at  last  she  said 
he  was.  And  he  was  taken  too  with  little  provoca- 
tion, fifty  years  ago.  We  were  working  together, 
myself  and  him  and  a  lot  of  others,  making  that 
trench  you  see  beyond,  to  drain  the  wood.  And  it 
was  contract  work,  and  he  was  doing  the  work  of  two 
men  and  was  near  ready  to  take  another  piece.  And 
some  of  them  began  to  say  to  him, ' '  It's  a  shame  for 
you  to  be  working  like  that,  and  taking  the  bread 
out  of  the  hands  of  another, "  and  I  standing  there. 
And  he  said  he  didn't  care,  and  he  took  the  spade 
and  sent  the  scraws  out  flying,  to  the  right  and  to 
the  left.  And  he  never  put  a  spade  into  the  ground 
again,  for  that  night  he  was  taken  ill,  and  died 
shortly  after.     Watched  he  was,  and  taken  by  them. 

As  to  the  woman  brought  back  again,  it  was 
told  me  by  a  boy  going  to  school  there  at  the 

171 


172  Visions  and  Beliefs 

time,  so  I  know  there's  no  lie  in  it.  It  was  one  of 
the  Taylors,  a  rich  family  in  Scariff .  His  wife  was 
sick  and  pining  away  for  seven  years,  and  at  the  end 
of  that  time  one  day  he  came  in  he  had  a  drop  of 
drink  taken,  and  he  began  to  be  a  bit  rough  with  her. 
And  she  said, ' '  Don't  be  rough  with  me  now,  after 
bearing  so  well  with  me  all  these  seven  years.  But 
because  you  were  so  good  and  so  kind  to  me  all  that 
time, "  says  she,  "I'll  go  away  from  you  now  and  I'll 
let  your  own  wife  come  back  to  you. "  And  so  she 
did,  for  it  was  some  old  hag  she  was,  and  the  wife 
came  back  again  and  reared  a  family.  And  before 
she  went  away,  she  had  a  son  that  was  reared  a 
priest,  and  after  she  came  back,  she  had  another 
son  that  was  reared  a  priest,  so  that  shows  a  bless- 
ing came  on  them.    (Note  39.) 

A  Man  on  the  Beach: 

I  remember  when  a  great  many  young  girls 
were  taken,  it  is  likely  by  them.  And  two  year 
ago  two  fine  young  women  were  brought  away 
from  Aranmor  one  in  a  month  and  one  in  a  week 
after  the  birth.  And  lately  I  heard  that  her  own 
little  girl  and  another  little  girl  that  was  with  her 
saw  one  of  them  appear  in  a  cabin  outside  when 
she  came  to  have  a  look  at  the  child  she  left,  but 
she  didn't  want  to  appear  herself. 

John  Flatley: 

There  was  a  man  I  knew,  Andy  White,  had  a  little 
chap,  a  little  summach  of  four  years.     And  one 


Away  173 

day  Andy  was  away  to  sell  a  pig  in  the  market  at 
Mount  Bellew,  and  the  mother  was  away  someplace 
with  the  dinner  for  the  men  in  the  field,  and  the 
little  chap  was  in  the  house  with  the  grandmother, 
and  he  sitting  by  the  fire.  And  he  said  to  the 
grandmother:  "Put  down  a  skillet  of  potatoes  for 
me,  and  an  egg."  And  she  said:  "I  will  not; 
what  do  you  want  with  them,  sure  you're  not  long 
after  eating."  And  he  said,  "Take  care  but  I'll 
throw  you  over  the  roof  of  the  house. "  And  then 
he  said,  "Andy" — that  was  his  father — "is  after 
selling  the  pig  to  a  jobber,  and  the  jobber  has  it 
given  back  to  him  again,  and  he'll  be  at  no  loss  by 
that,  for  he'll  get  a  half-a-crown  more  at  the  end. " 
So  when  the  grandmother  heard  that  she  wouldn't 
stop  in  the  house  with  him  but  ran  out,  and  he 
only  four  years  old. 

When  the  mother  came  back  and  was  told  about 
it  she  went  out  and  she  got  some  of  the  leaves  of 
the  Lus-Mor,  and  she  brought  them  in  and  put 
them  on  him;  and  he  went,  and  her  own  child 
came  back  again.  They  didn't  see  him  going  or 
the  other  coming,  but  they  knew  it  by  him.  But 
if  her  child  had  died  among  them,  and  they  can 
die  there  as  well  as  in  this  world,  then  he  wouldn't 
come  back,  but  that  shape  in  his  place  would  take 
the  appearance  of  death. 

Mrs.  Cooke: 

There's  a  man  in  Kildare  that  lost  his  wife. 
And  every  night  at  twelve  o'clock  she  came  back, 


174  Visions  and  Beliefs 

to  look  at  her  child.  And  it  was  told  the  husband 
that  if  he  had  twelve  men  with  him  with  forks  when 
she  came  in,  they  would  be  able  to  stop  her  from 
going  out  again. 

So  the  next  night  he  was  there,  and  with  him  his 
twelve  friends  with  forks.  And  when  she  came 
in  they  shut  the  door,  and  when  she  could  not  get 
out  she  sat  down  and  was  quiet. 

And  one  night  she  was  sitting  by  the  hearth 
with  them  all,  she  said  to  her  husband,  "It's  a 
strange  thing  that  Lenchar  would  be  sitting  there 
so  quiet,  with  the  bottom  after  being  knocked  out 
of  his  churn. " 

So  the  husband  went  to  Lenchar's  house,  and  he 
found  it  was  true  what  she  had  said,  and  the  bot- 
tom was  after  being  knocked  out  of  his  churn. 
But  after  that  he  left  her,  and  lived  in  the  village 
and  wouldn't  go  near  her  any  more. 

Myself,  I  saw  when  I  was  but  a  child  a  woman 
come  to  the  door  that  had  been  seven  years  with 
the  good  people,  but  do  you  think  that  could  be 
true?  And  she  had  two  strong  girls  with  her. 
My  brother  was  ill  at  the  time,  where  he  had  his 
hip  hurt  with  the  shaft  of  a  cart  he  was  backing 
into  the  shed,  and  my  father  asked  her  could  she 
cure  him.  And  she  said,  "I  will,  if  you  will  give 
me  the  reward  I  ask  for."  "What  is  that?"  said 
he.  And  she  stooped  down  and  pointed  at  a  little 
kettle  that  stood  below  the  dresser,  and  it  was  the 
last  thing  my  mother  had  bought  in  this  world 


Away  175 

before  she  died.  So  he  was  vexed  because  she  cast 
her  eye  on  that,  and  he  bid  her  go  out  of  the  house 
for  she  wouldn't  get  it,  and  so  she  went  away. 

But  I  remember  well  her  being  there  and  telling 
us  that  while  the  seven  years  were  going  by,  she 
was  often  glad  to  come  outside  the  houses  in  the 
night-time,  and  pick  a  bit  of  what  was  in  the  pigs' 
troughs.  And  she  bid  us  always  to  leave  a  bit 
somewhere  about  the  house  for  them  that  couldn't 
come  in  and  ask  for  it.  And  though  my  father 
was  a  cross  man  and  didn't  believe  in  such  things, 
to  the  day  of  his  death  he  never  dared  to  go  up  to 
bed  without  leaving  a  bit  of  food  outside  the  door. 
{Note  40.) 

A  Herd: 

The  McGarritys  in  the  house  beyond,  they 
have  plenty  of  money.  It  was  money  they  got 
out,  buried  money,  and  they  are  after  them. 

There  is  one  of  them — Ned — is  rather  silly; 
I  meet  him  often  on  the  farm  stretched  by  the 
side  of  the  wall.  He  met  with  something  one 
night  and  he  is  not  the  same  since  then. 

There  is  another  of  them  was  walking  one 
evening  by  the  brink  of  the  bushes  and  he  met 
with  two  fillies — he  thought  them  to  be  fillies — 
and  one  of  them  called  out,  "How  are  you,  John?" 
and  he  legged  it  home  as  fast  as  he  could.  It  is 
likely  it  was  the  father  or  the  uncle. 

Sure  leaving  town  one  time  he  was  brought  away 
to  the  railway  station,  and  some  of  the  people 


176  Visions  and  Beliefs 

brought  him  hither  again  and  set  him  towards 
home  and  he  was  brought  back  to  the  very  same 
place.  They  had  a  right  to  have  got  the  priest 
to  say  a  few  Masses  in  that  house  before  they  went 
to  live  in  it  at  all. 

It  was  the  time  their  uncle  was  dying  there  was 
a  whistle  heard  outside  and  the  man  in  the  bed 
answered  it,  and  it  was  that  very  night  he  died. 
To  keep  money  you  would  get  out  like,  that  is  not 
right  unless  you  might  give  the  first  of  it  in  a  few 
Masses.  It  was  the  man  the  money  was  took  from 
gave  that  whistle. 

Mrs.  Donnely: 

My  mother  told  me  that  when  she  was  a  young 
girl,  and  before  the  time  of  side-cars,  a  man  that 
was  living  in  Duras  married  a  girl  from  Ardrahan 
side.  And  it  was  the  custom  in  those  days  for  a 
newly  married  girl  to  ride  home  on  a  horse,  behind 
her  next-of-kin. 

And  she  was  sitting  behind  her  uncle  on  the 
horse,  and  when  they  were  passing  by  Ardrahan 
churchyard  he  felt  her  to  shiver  and  nearly  to  slip 
off  the  horse,  and  he  put  his  hand  behind  for  to 
support  her,  and  all  he  could  feel  in  his  hand  was  for 
all  the  world  like  a  piece  of  tow.  So  he  asked  her 
what  ailed  her,  and  she  said  that  she  thought  of 
her  mother  when  she  was  passing  by  the  church- 
yard. A  year  after  that  when  her  baby  was  born, 
then  she  died.  But  everyone  said  the  night  she 
was  taken  was  on  her  wedding-night. 


Away  177 

And  sure  a  sister-in-law  of  my  own  was  taken 
the  same  way  that  poor  Mrs.  Hehir  was.  It  was  a 
couple  of  days  after  her  baby  was  born,  and  I  went 
to  see  her,  and  she  Fardy's  daughter  and  niece  to 
Johnson  that  has  the  demesne  land.  And  she  was 
sitting  up  on  the  bed  and  so  well  and  so  strong 
that  her  mother  says  to  me,  "Catherine,  try  could 
you  get  a  chicken  any  place;  I  think  she'll  be 
able  to  eat  it  tomorrow."  "Chicken's  is  scarce, 
ma'am,"  says  I,  "but  anyway  I'll  do  my  best  and 
someway  or  other  I'll  find  one." 

Well,  after  that  we  left,  and  her  husband  being 
tired  with  the  nights  he'd  been  sitting  up  came 
with  us  to  sleep  at  the  house  of  his  uncle,  Johnson. 
And  hardly  had  he  got  to  the  house  when  bad 
news  followed  him.  And  when  he  got  home  his 
wife  was  dead  before  him.  Hardly  were  we  out  of 
the  house  when  she  said  to  her  mother  "Take  off 
my  boots."  "Sure,  you  have  no  boots  on,"  said 
the  mother.  "Well, "  says  she,  "lay  me  at  the  foot 
of  the  bed."  And  presently  she  says,  "Send 
in  to  the  Mclnerneys  and  ask  them  if  the  coffin 
they  have  is  a  better  one  than  mine."  And  the 
mother  saw  she  was  going,  and  sent  for  the  hus- 
band, but  she  was  gone  before  he  could  come.  And 
she  so  well  and  sitting  up  in  the  bed.  But  Hehir's 
wife  was  out  of  bed  altogether,  and  brought  her 
husband  his  tea  in  the  hayfield  before  she  was  took. 

And  now  I'll  tell  your  ladyship  a  story  that's  all 
truth  and  no  lie.     There  was  an  uncle  of  my  own 

vol.  1— ia 


178  Visions  and  Beliefs 

living  near  Kinvara,  and  one  night  his  wife  was 
coming  home  from  Kinvara  town,  and  she  passed 
three  men  that  were  lying  by  the  roadside.  And 
the  first  of  them  said  to  her  in  Irish,  "Go  home, 
my  poor  woman."  And  the  second  said,  "Go 
home  if  you  can. "  And  when  she  got  home  and 
told  the  story,  she  said  the  voice  of  the  second  was 
like  the  voice  of  her  brother  that  was  dead. 

And  from  that  day  she  began  to  waste  away,  and 
was  wasting  for  seven  year,  until  she  died.  And 
at  the  last  some  person  said  to  her  husband,  "It's 
time  for  you  to  ask  her  what  way  she's  been  spend- 
ing these  seven  years." 

So  he  went  into  the  room  where  she  was  on  the 
bed,  and  said,  "I  believe  it's  time  to  ask  you  now 
what  way  have  you  been  spending  these  seven 
years. "  And  she  said,  "I'll  tell  you  presently  when 
you  come  in  again,  but  leave  me  now  for  a  while. " 
And  he  went  back  into  the  kitchen  and  took  his 
pipe  for  to  have  a  smoke  before  he'd  go  back  and 
ask  her  again.  And  the  servant  girl  that  was  in 
the  house  was  the  first  to  go  into  the  room,  and 
found  her  cold  and  dead  before  her. 

They  had  her  took  away  before  she  had  the 
time  to  tell  what  she  had  been  doing  all  those 
seven  years. 

J.  Kenny: 

I  was  in  a  house  one  night  with  a  man  used  to 
go  away  with  the  faeries.  He  got  up  in  the  night 
and  opened  the  house  door  and  went  out.     About 


Away  179 

four  hours  he  was  away,  and  when  he  came  back 
he  seemed  to  be  very  angry.  I  saw  him  putting 
off  his  clothes. 

Nora  Whelan: 

Indeed  Moneen  has  a  great  name  for  things 
that  do  be  going  on  there  beside  that  big  forth. 
Sure  there's  many  can  hear  them  galloping,  gallop- 
ing all  the  night.  You  know  Stephen's  house  at 
the  meadow  ?  Well,  his  daughter  got  a  touch  from 
them  one  night  when  she  heard  them  going  past 
with  horses  and  with  carriages,  and  she  the  only 
one  in  the  house  that  felt  them.  She  got  silly 
like  for  a  bit,  but  she's  getting  better  now. 

An  old  woman  from  Loughrea  told  me  that  a 
woman,  I  believe  it  was  from  Shragwalla  close  to 
the  town,  was  taken  away  one  time  for  fourteen 
years  when  she  went  out  into  the  field  at  night  with 
nothing  on  but  her  shift.  And  she  was  swept  there 
and  then,  and  an  old  hag  put  into  the  bed  in  her 
place,  and  she  suckling  her  young  son  at  the  time. 

It  was  a  great  many  years  after  that,  there  was 
a  pedlar  used  to  be  going  about,  and  in  his  travels 
he  went  to  England.  And  up  in  the  north  of 
England  he  saw  a  rich  house  and  went  into  the 
kitchen  of  it,  and  there  he  saw  that  same  woman, 
in  a  corner  working.  And  he  went  up  to  her  and 
said,  "I  know  where  you  come  from."  "Where's 
that?"  says  she,  and  he  gave  her  the  name  of  her 
own  village.  Well,  she  laughed  and  she  went  out 
of  the  kitchen,  and  I  don't  know  did  she  buy 


180  Visions  and  Beliefs 

anything  from  him.  But  anyhow  not  long  after 
that  she  come  back  and  walked  into  her  own  house. 

The  husband  never  knew  her,  but  the  boy  that 
was  then  fourteen  year  come  up  and  touched  her, 
and  the  father  cried  out,  "Leave  off  putting  your 
hand  to  that  fine  dress,"  for  she  had  very  rich 
clothes  on.  But  she  stood  up  and  said,  "I'm  no 
other  than  your  wife  come  back  again,  and  the 
first  thing  you  have  to  do  is  to  bring  in  all  you  can 
carry  of  turf,  and  to  make  a  big  fire  here  in  the 
middle  of  the  floor. " 

Well,  the  old  hag  was  in  the  room  within,  in  the 
bed  where  she'd  been  lying  a  long  time,  and  they 
thinking  she  was  dying.  And  when  the  smoke  of 
the  fire  went  in  at  the  door  she  jumps  up  and  away 
with  her  out  of  the  house,  and  tale  or  tidings  of  her 
they  never  had  again. 

My  mother  often  told  me  about  her  sister's 
child — my  cousin — that  used  to  spend  the  nights 
in  the  big  forth  at  Moneen.  Every  night  she  went 
there,  and  she  got  thin  and  tired  like.  She  used  to 
say  that  she  saw  grand  things  there,  and  the  horses 
galloping  and  the  riding.  But  then  she'd  say, 
"I  must  tell  no  more  than  that,  or  I'll  get  a  great 
beating."  She  wasted  away,  but  one  night  they 
were  so  sure  that  she  was  dead  they  had  the  pot 
boiling  full  of  water  to  wash  her.  But  she  re- 
covered again  and  lived  five  years  after  that. 

Sure  there  was  a  faery  in  the  house  out  beyond 
fourteen  years.    Katie  Morgan  she  was  called.    Sh  1 


Away  181 

never  kept  the  bed,  but  she'd  sit  in  the  corner  of  the 
kitchen  on  a  mat,  and  from  a  good  stout  lump  of  a 
girl  that  she  was  she  wasted  to  nothing,  and  her 
teeth  grew  as  long  as  your  fingers  and  then  they 
dropped  out.  And  she'd  eat  nothing  at  all  only 
crabs  and  sour  things.  And  she'd  never  leave  the 
house  in  the  day-time,  but  in  the  night  she'd  go 
out  and  pick  things  out  of  the  fields  she  could  eat. 
And  the  hurt  she  got  or  whatever  it  was  touched 
her,  it  was  one  day  that  she  was  swinging  on  the 
corner  gate  just  there  by  the  forth.  She  died 
as  quiet  as  another.  But  you  wouldn't  like  to  be 
looking  at  her  after  the  teeth  fell  out. 

Martin  Rabitt: 

There's  some  people  it's  lucky  to  meet  and 
others  it's  unlucky,  and  if  you  set  off  to  go  to 
America  or  around  the  world,  and  one  of  the 
unlucky  ones  comes  and  speaks  to  you  on  the  boat, 
you  might  as  well  turn  back  and  come  home  again. 

My  own  sister  was  taken  away,  she  and  her 
husband  within  twenty-four  hours,  and  not  a  thing 
upon  them,  and  she  with  a  baby  a  week  old.  Well, 
the  care  of  that  child  fell  on  me,  and  sick  or  sorry 
it  never  was  but  thriving  always. 

And  a  friend  of  mine  told  me  the  same  thing. 
His  wife  was  taken  away  in  child-birth — and  the 
five  children  she  left  that  did  be  always  ailing  and 
sickly — from  that  day  there  never  was  a  hap'orth 
ailed  them. 

Did  the  mother  come  back  to  care  them  ?    Sure 


182  Visions  and  Beliefs 

and  certain  she  did,  and  I'm  the  one  can  tell  that. 
For  I  slept  in  the  room  with  my  sister's  child  after 
she  dying;  and  as  sure  as  I  stand  here  talking  to 
you,  she  was  back  in  the  room  that  night. 

Walking  towards  nightfall  myself,  I've  seen  the 
shadows  dancing  before  me,  but  I  wasn't  af eared, 
no  more  than  I  am  of  you.  And  I've  felt  them 
other  times  crying  and  groaning  about  the  house. 

As  to  the  faeries,  up  beyond  Ballymore  there's  a 
woman  that  was  said  to  be  with  them  for  seven 
years.  But  she  came  back  after  that  and  had  an 
impediment  in  her  speech  ever  since. 

Martin  King: 

There's  a  little  forth  on  this  side  of  Clough  be- 
hind Glyn's  house,  and  there  was  a  boy  in  Clough 
was  said  to  have  passed  a  night  and  a  day  in  it. 
I  often  saw  him,  and  he  was  dull  looking,  but  for 
cleverness  there  was  no  one  could  touch  him.  I 
saw  a  picture  of  a  train  he  drew  one  time,  with  not 
a  bolt  nor  a  ha'porth  left  out ;  and  whatever  he  put 
his  hand  to  he  could  do  it,  and  he  with  no  more 
teaching  than  any  other  poor  boy  in  the  town. 
I  believe  that  he  went  to  America  afterwards. 

And  I  remember  a  boy  was  about  my  own  age 
over  at  Annagh  at  the  other  side  of  the  water,  and 
it's  said  that  he  was  away  for  two  years.  Anyway 
for  all  that  time  he  was  sick  in  bed,  and  no  one 
ever  saw  bit  or  sup  cross  his  lips  in  all  that  time, 


Away  183 


though  the  food  that  was  left  in  the  room  would 
disappear,  whatever  happened  it.  He  recovered 
after  and  went  to  America. 

There  was  a  girl  near  taken,  in  the  Prestons* 
house.  I  saw  her  myself  in  the  bed,  near  gone. 
But  of  a  sudden  she  sat  up  and  looked  on  the  floor 
and  began  to  curse,  and  then  they  left  her  for  they 
can't  bear  curses.  They  have  the  hope  of  Heaven 
or  they  wouldn't  leave  one  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
and  they  are  afraid  of  God.  They'll  not  do  you 
much  harm  if  you  leave  them  alone ;  it's  best  not 
to  speak  to  them  at  all  if  you  should  meet  them. 
If  they  bring  any  one  away  they'll  leave  some  old 
good-for-nothing  thing  in  its  place,  and  the  same 
way  with  a  cow  or  a  calf  or  such  things.  But  a 
sheep  or  a  lamb  it's  beyond  their  power  to  touch, 
because  of  our  Lord. 

An  Old  Butcher: 

I  was  born  myself  by  daylight,  and  my  mother 
often  told  me  that  I'd  never  see  anything  worse 
than  myself.  There's  some  can  see  those  things 
and  some  that  can't. 

But  one  time  I  went  up  by  the  parish  of  Kil- 
lisheen  to  look  for  half -beef ,  I  having  at  the  time 
a  contract  for  the  workhouse.  And  I  went  astray 
on  the  mountains,  and  near  Killifin  I  came  to  a 
weaver's  house  and  went  in.  And  there  was  sitting 
in  the  corner  such  a  creature  as  I  never  saw  before, 
with  nothing  on  him  but  a  shirt,  and  eyes  that 


1 84  Visions  and  Beliefs 

would  go  through  you.  And  I  wouldn't  stop  in 
the  house  but  went  out  again.  And  the  weaver 
followed  me  and  says  he,  "Is  it  afraid  of  him  you 
are? "  "It  is,"  says  I.  " I  thought  you  would  be," 
says  he,  "and  would  you  believe  that  he's  my  own 
son,  and  as  fine  a  young  chap  as  ever  you  seen 
until  seven  year  ago  when  I  sent  him  to  Clough  on 
a  message,  and  he  fell  going  over  a  wall,  and  it's 
then  he  got  the  touch,  and  it's  like  this  he's  been 
ever  since. "  "Does  he  ask  to  eat  much?"  says  I. 
" He'd  eat  the  whole  world, "  says  he.  "Then  it's 
not  your  son  that's  in  it,  you  may  be  sure  of  that," 
says  I,  and  I  turned  and  went  away  and  never 
went  back  there  again. 

And  it's  not  many  year  ago  that  such  a  lot  of 
fine  women  were  taken  from  Clough,  very  sudden, 
after  childbirth — fine  women — I  knew  them  all 
myself.  And  I'll  tell  you  a  thing  I  heard  of  in  the 
country.  There  was  a  woman  died,  and  left  her 
child.  And  every  night  at  twelve  o'clock  she'd 
come  back,  and  brought  it  out  of  the  bed  to  the 
fire,  and  she'd  comb  it  and  wash  it.  And  at  last 
six  men  came  and  watched  and  stopped  her  at  the 
door,  and  she  went  very  near  to  tear  them  all 
asunder.  But  they  got  the  priest,  and  he  took  it 
off  her.  Well,  the  husband  had  got  another  wife, 
and  the  priest  came  and  asked  him  would  he  put 
her  away,  and  take  the  first  again.  And  so  he  did, 
and  he  brought  her  to  the  chapel  to  be  married  to 
her  again,  and  the  whole  congregation  saw  her 
there.     That  was  rather  hard  on  the  second  wife? 


Away  185 

Well,  but  wasn't  it  a  great  thing  for  the  first  poor 
creature  to  be  brought  back?  Sure  there's  many 
of  those  poor  souls  wandering  about. 

Sure  enough,  some  are  brought  away  and  kept 
for  years,  but  sometimes  they  come  back  again. 
There  was  a  woman  beyond  at  Cahirmacun  was 
away  for  a  year,  and  came  back  and  reared  a 
family  after.  They  know  well  what  happened 
them,  but  they  don't  speak  of  it.  There  was  a 
young  fellow  got  a  touch  there  near  Ballytown,  and 
a  little  chap  met  him  wandering  in  the  field.  And 
he  bid  him  put  out  food  for  him  every  night,  for 
he  had  none  of  their  food  ate  yet,  and  so  they 
hadn't  got  full  power  over  him.  So  food  was  left 
for  him,  "and  after  a  time  he  came  back  as  well  as 
another. 

A  Connemara  man: 

There  are  many  that  die  and  don't  go  out  of  the 
world  at  all.  The  priests  know  that.  There  was 
a  boy  dying  in  a  house  up  the  road,  and  the  priest 
came  to  him  and  he  was  lying  as  if  dead,  that  he 
could  not  speak  nor  hear,  and  the  priest  said,  "  The 
boys  have  a  hand  in  this. "  He  meant  by  that,  the 
faeries.  I  was  outside  the  house  myself  at  the 
time,  for  the  boy  was  a  friend  of  mine,  and  I 
didn't  like  him  to  die.  And  you  never  saw  such 
a  storm  as  arose  when  the  priest  was  coming  to  the 
house,  a  storm  of  wind,  and  a  cloud  over  the  moon. 
But  after  a  while  the  boy  died,  and  the  storm  went 
down  and  the  moon  shone  out  as  bright  as  before. 


1 86  Visions  and  Beliefs 

There  was  a  man  was  said  to  go  away  of  nights 
with  them.  When  he  got  the  call,  away  he  must 
go  if  he  liked  it  or  not. 

And  one  day  he  was  out  in  the  bay  with  some 
others,  and  all  of  a  sudden  he  said,  "Let  me  go 
home,  my  horse  is  like  to  die. "  And  they  wouldn't 
mind  him  for  a  time,  but  at  last  they  turned  and 
rowed  home,  and  they  found  his  horse  that  was 
well  when  he  went  out,  stretched  on  the  field. 

Another  time  he  was  with  a  man  that  had  a 
grand  three-year-old  filly  and  was  showing  it  to 
him.  And  he  said,  "You  won't  have  her  long"; 
and  it  wasn't  long  after  that  she  died. 

Mrs.  Feeney: 

There  was  a  man  died  and  his  wife  died,  and 
an  uncle  took  charge  of  the  children.  The  man 
had  a  shop  but  the  uncle  lived  a  little  way  from 
the  shop,  and  he  would  leave  the  children  alone 
through  the  night.  There  were  two  men  making 
a  journey,  and  a  storm  rose  up,  and  they  asked 
could  they  have  a  part  of  the  night  in  the  house 
where  the  shop  was,  and  the  uncle  said  they  could, 
and  he  went  to  his  own  house. 

The  men  were  sitting  up  by  the  fire  and  the 
children  were  sleeping  at  the  other  side  of  the  room. 
And  one  of  the  men  said  to  the  other  "God  rest  the 
soul  of  the  man  that  died  here.  He  was  a  good 
man."  And  the  other  said,  "The  wife  wasn't  so 
good."  And  just  then  they  heard  a  noise  below, 
and  they  saw  the  wife  that  had  died  coming  into 


Away  187 

the  room  and  she  went  across  and  lay  down  on  the 
bed  where  the  baby  was.  And  the  baby  that  was 
crying  before  got  quiet  then  and  made  no  sound 
at  all. 

But  as  to  the  two  men,  bad  as  the  storm  was 
outside,  they  thought  better  to  be  out  in  it  than 
to  stop  in  the  room  where  the  woman  was,  so  they 
went  away.  It  was  to  quiet  the  baby  she  used  to 
come  back. 

There  was  an  old  woman  I  remember,  Mrs. 
Sheridan,  and  she  had  to  go  with  them  for  two  or 
three  hours  every  night  for  a  while,  and  she'd 
make  great  complaints  of  the  hardship  she'd  meet 
with,  and  how  she'd  have  to  spend  the  night  going 
through  little  boreens  or  in  the  churchyard  at 
Kin  vara,  or  they'd  bring  her  down  to  the  seashore. 
They  often  meet  with  hardships  like  that,  those 
they  bring  with  them,  so  it's  no  wonder  they're 
glad  to  get  back.     This  world's  the  best. 

There  was  a  woman  living  over  there  near 
Aughsulis,  and  a  few  years  ago  she  lost  a  fine  young 
milch  cow,  with  its  first  calf.  And  she  and  the 
three  boys  in  the  house  salted  it  down  and  they  ate 
the  half  of  it  and  they  couldn't  eat  the  other  half, 
it  was  too  hard  or  too  tough,  and  they  put  it 
under  the  dung  that  was  in  the  yard,  the  way  it 
would  melt  into  it.  And  when  the  springtime 
came,  they  turned  up  the  dung,  and  in  the  place 
it  was  buried  they  found  nothing  but  three  planks 


1 88  Visions  and  Beliefs 

of  the  wood  that's  cut  in  Connemara — deal  they 
call  it.  So  the  cow  never  died,  but  was  brought 
away  with  themselves.  For  many  a  young  boy 
and  young  woman  goes  like  that,  and  there's  no 
doubt  at  all  that  Mary  Hynes  was  taken.  There's 
some  living  yet  can  remember  her  coming  to  the 
pattern  was  there  beyond,  and  she  was  said  to  be 
the  handsomest  girl  in  Ireland.    (Note  41.) 

There's  a  man  now  living  between  this  place  and 
Kinvara,  Fannen  his  name  is,  and  he  goes  away 
with  them,  and  he's  got  delicate  and  silly  like. 
One  night  he  was  in  that  bad  place  that's  near  the 
chapel  of  Kinvara,  and  he  found  a  great  crowd  of 
them  "about  him  and  a  man  on  a  white  horse 
was  with  them,  and  tried  to  keep  him,  and  he 
cried  and  struggled  and  they  let  him  go  at  last. 
But  now  the  neighbours  all  say  he  does  be  going 
with  them,  and  he  told  me  himself  he  does.  I 
wouldn't  be  afraid  of  him  when  I'd  meet  him  on 
the  road,  but  many  of  the  neighbours  would  be 
afraid. 

And  two  of  his  sons  have  got  silly.  They  found 
a  bar  of  gold  one  time  out  playing  in  the  field,  and 
the  money  they  got  for  it  they  put  it  in  the  bank. 
But  I  believe  it's  getting  less  now,  and  what 
good  did  it  do  them  when  they  went  like  that? 
One  of  the  boys  was  to  be  a  priest,  but  they 
had  to  give  that  up  when  he  got  silly.  It  was 
no  right  money.  And  they'd  best  not  have 
touched  it. 


Away  189 

Mrs.  Finnegan: 

Dreams,  we  should  not  pay  too  much  attention 
to,  and  we  should  judge  them  well,  that  is,  if  a 
dream  is  bad  or  good,  we  should  say  "It's  a  good 
dream* ' ;  and  we  should  never  tell  a  dream  to  any- 
one fasting;  and  it's  said  if  you  tell  your  dream 
to  a  tree  fasting,  it  will  wither  up.  And  it's  better 
to  dream  of  a  person's  downfall  than  of  him  being 
up.  When  the  good  people  take  a  cow  or  the  like, 
you'll  know  if  they  did  it  by  there  being  no  fat 
on  what's  left  in  its  place  and  no  eyes  in  it.  When 
my  own  springer  died  so  sudden  this  year,  I  was 
afraid  to  use  it.  But  Pat  Hevenor  said,  "It's  a 
fool  you  are,  and  it  might  save  you  the  price  of  a 
bag  of  meal  to  feed  the  bonifs  with  a  bit  of  it." 
And  he  brought  the  cart  and  brought  it  home  to 
me.  So  I  put  down  a  bit  to  boil  for  the  bonifs  to 
try  it,  for  I  heard  that  if  it  was  their  work,  it  would 
go  to  water.  But  there  was  fat  rising  to  the  top, 
that  I  have  enough  in  the  shed  to  grease  the  cart 
wheels  for  a  year.     So  then  I  salted  a  bit  of  it  down. 

If  they  take  any  one  with  them,  yourself  or 
myself  it  might  be,  they'll  put  some  old  spent  man 
in  his  place,  that  they  had  with  them  a  long  time, 
and  the  father  and  the  mother  and  the  children 
will  think  it  is  the  child  or  the  father  or  the  mother 
that  is  in  it.  And  so  it  may  be  he'd  get  absolution. 
But  as  for  the  old  faeries  that  were  there  from  the 
beginning,  I  don't  know  about  them.    {Note  42.) 

It's  said  that  if  we  know  how  to  be  neighbourly 
with  them,  they'd  be  neighbourly  and  friendly  with 


190  Visions  and  Beliefs 

us.  It's  said  it  was  they  brought  away  the  po- 
tatoes in  the  bad  time,  when  all  the  potatoes  turned 
black.  But  it  wasn't  for  spite,  it  was  because  they 
wanted  them  themselves. 

Mrs.  Casey: 

There  was  a  woman  in  Ballinamore  died  after 
the  baby  being  born.  And  the  husband  took 
another  wife  and  she  very  young,  that  everyone 
wondered  she'd  like  to  go  into  the  house.  And 
every  night  the  first  wife  came  to  the  loft,  and 
looked  down  at  her  baby,  and  they  couldn't  see 
her;  but  they'd  know  she  was  there  by  the  child 
looking  up  and  smiling  at  her. 

So  at  last  some  one  said  that  if  they'd  go  up  in 
the  loft  after  the  cock  crowing  three  times  they'd 
see  her.  And  so  they  did,  and  there  she  was,  with 
her  own  dress  on,  a  plaid  shawl  she  had  brought 
from  America,  and  a  cotton  skirt  with  some  edging 
at  the  bottom. 

So  they  went  to  the  priest,  and  he  said  Mass  in 
the  house,  and  they  didn't  see  so  much  of  her  after 
that.  But  after  a  year,  the  new  wife  had  a  baby. 
And  one  day  she  bid  the  first  child  to  rock  the  cradle. 
But  when  she  sat  down  to  it,  a  sort  of  a  sickness 
came  over  her,  and  she  could  do  nothing,  and  the 
same  thing  always  happened,  for  her  mother  didn't 
like  to  see  her  caring  the  second  wife's  baby. 

And  one  day  the  wife  herself  fell  in  the  fire  and 
got  a  great  many  burns,  and  they  said  that  it  was 
she  did  it. 


Away  191 

So  they  went  to  the  blessed  well  Tubbermacduagh 
near  Kinvara,  and  they  were  told  to  go  there  every 
Friday  for  twelve  weeks,  and  they  said  seven 
prayers  and  gathered  seven  stones  every  time. 
And  since  then  she  doesn't  come  to  the  house,  but 
the  little  girl  goes  out  and  meets  her  mother  at  a 
faery  bush.  And  sometimes  she  speaks  to  her 
there,  and  sometimes  in  her  dreams.  But  no  one 
else  but  her  own  little  girl  has  seen  her  of  late. 

There  was  one  time  a  tailor,  and  he  was  a  wild 
card,  always  going  to  sprees.  And  one  night  he 
was  passing  by  a  house,  and  he  heard  a  voice  say- 
ing, "Who'll  take  the  child?  "  And  he  saw  a  little 
baby  held  out,  and  the  hands  that  were  holding 
it,  but  he  could  see  no  more  than  that.  So  he 
took  it,  and  he  brought  it  to  the  next  house, 
and  asked  the  woman  there  to  take  it  in  for  the 
night. 

Well,  in  the  morning  the  woman  in  the  first  house 
found  a  dead  child  in  the  bed  beside  her.  And  she 
was  crying  and  wailing  and  called  all  the  people. 
And  when  the  woman  from  the  neighbouring 
house  came,  there  in  her  arms  was  the  child 
she  thought  was  dead.  But  if  it  wasn't  for  the 
tailor  that  chanced  to  be  passing  by  and  to 
take  it,  we  know  very  well  what  would  have 
happened  it. 

That's  a  thing  happens  to  many,  to  have  faery 
children  put  upon  them. 


192  Visions  and  Beliefs 

A  Man  at  Corcomroe: 

There  was  one  Delvin,  that  lies  under  a  slab 
yonder,  and  for  seven  years  he  was  brought  away 
every  night,  and  into  this  abbey.  And  he  was 
beat  and  pinched,  and  when  he'd  come  home  he'd 
faint;  but  he  used  to  say  that  the  place  that  he 
went  to  was  grander  than  any  city.  One  night 
he  was  with  a  lot  of  others  at  a  wake,  and  they 
knew  the  time  was  coming  for  him  to  go,  and  they 
all  took  hold  of  him.  But  he  was  drawn  out  of  the 
door,  and  the  arms  of  those  that  were  holding  him 
were  near  pulled  out  of  their  sockets. 

Mischievous  they  are,  but  they  don't  do  much 
harm.  Some  say  they  are  fallen  angels,  and  hope 
yet  to  be  saved. 

A  Slieve  Echtge  Woman: 

I  knew  another  was  away  for  seven  years — and  it 
was  in  the  next  townland  to  this  she  lived.  Bridget 
Clonkelly  her  name  was.  There  was  a  large  family 
of  them,  and  she  was  the  youngest,  and  a  very  fine- 
looking  fair-haired  girl  she  was.  I  knew  her  well, 
she  was  the  one  age  with  myself. 

It  was  in  the  night  she  used  to  go  to  them,  and 
if  the  door  was  shut,  she'd  come  in  by  the  key-hole. 
The  first  time  they  came  for  her,  she  was  in  bed 
between  her  two  sisters,  and  she  didn't  want  to  go. 
And  they  beat  her  and  pinched  her,  till  her  brother 
called  out  to  know  what  was  the  matter. 

She  often  told  me  about  them,  and  how  she  was 
badly  treated  because  she  wouldn't  eat  their  food. 


Away  193 

She  got  no  more  than  about  three  cold  potatoes 
she  could  eat  all  the  time  she  was  with  them. 

All  the  old  people  about  here  put  out  food  every 
night,  the  first  of  the  food  before  they  have  any  of 
it  tasted  themselves.  And  she  said  there  was  a 
red-haired  girl  among  them,  that  would  throw  her 
into  the  river  she  got  so  mad  with  her.  But  if 
she'd  had  their  food  ate,  she'd  never  have  got 
away  from  them  at  all. 

She  married  a  serving-man  after,  and  they  went 
to  Sydney,  and  if  nothing  happened  in  the  last 
two  years  they're  doing  well  there  now. 

Mrs.  Casey: 

Near  my  own  house  by  the  sea  there  was  a  girl 
went  out  one  day  to  get  nuts  near  the  wood,  and 
she  heard  music  inside  the  wood.  And  when  she 
went  home  she  told  her  mother.  But  the  next 
day  she  went  again,  and  the  next,  and  she  stopped 
so  long  that  the  mother  sent  the  other  little  girl 
to  look  for  her,  but  she  could  see  no  one.  But  she 
came  in  after  a  time,  and  she  went  inside  into  the 
room,  and  while  she  was  there  the  mother  heard 
music  from  the  room;  but  when  the  girl  came  out 
she  said  she  heard  nothing.  But  the  next  day 
after  that  she  died. 

The  neighbours  all  came  in  to  the  wake,  and 
there  was  tobacco  and  snuff  there,  but  not  much, 
for  it's  the  custom  not  to  have  so  much  when  a 
young  person  dies.  But  when  they  looked  at  the 
bed,  it  was  no  young  person  they  saw  in  it,  but  an 

VOL.  I — 13 


194  Visions  and  Beliefs 

old  woman  with  long  teeth  that  you'd  be  frightened, 
and  the  face  wrinkled,  and  the  hands.  So  they 
didn't  stop  but  went  away,  and  she  was  buried  the 
next  day.  And  in  the  night  the  mother  would  hear 
music  all  about  the  house,  and  lights  of  all  colours 
flashing  about  the  windows. 

She  was  never  seen  again  except  by  a  boy  that 
was  working  about  the  place.  He  met  her  one 
evening  at  the  end  of  the  house,  dressed  in  her  own 
clothes.  But  he  could  not  question  her  where  she 
was,  for  it's  only  when  you  meet  them  by  a  bush 
you  can  question  them  there. 

A  Man  of  Slieve  Echtge: 

There  was  a  man,  and  he  a  cousin  of  my  own, 
lost  his  wife.  And  one  night  he  heard  her  come 
into  the  room,  where  he  was  in  bed  with  the  child 
beside  him,  and  he  let  on  to  be  asleep,  and  she  took 
the  child  and  brought  her  out  to  the  kitchen  fire 
and  sat  down  beside  it  and  suckled  it. 

And  then  she  put  it  back  into  the  bed  again,  and 
he  lay  still  and  said  nothing.  The  second  night 
she  came  again,  and  he  had  more  courage  and  he 
said,  "Why  have  you  got  no  boots  on?"  For  he 
saw  that  her  feet  were  bare.  And  she  said,  "Be- 
cause there's  iron  nails  in  them."  So  he  said, 
"  Give  them  to  me,"  and  he  got  up  and  drew  all  the 
nails  out  of  them,  and  she  brought  them  away. 

The  third  night  she  came  again,  and  when  she 
was  suckling  the  child  he  saw  that  she  was  still 
barefoot,  and  he  asked  why  didn't  she  wear  the 


Away  195 

boots.  "Because,"  says  she,  "you  left  one  sprig 
in  them,  between  the  upper  and  the  lower  sole. 
But  if  you  have  courage,"  says  she,  "you  can  do 
more  than  that  for  me.  Come  tomorrow  night 
to  the  gap  up  there  beyond  the  hill,  and  you'll 
see  the  riders  going  through,  and  the  one  you'll  see 
on  the  last  horse  will  be  me.  And  bring  with  you 
some  fowl  droppings  and  urine,  and  throw  them  at 
me  as  I  pass,  and  you'll  get  me  again."  Well  he 
got  so  far  as  to  go  to  the  gap,  and  to  bring  what  she 
told  him,  and  when  they  came  riding  through  the 
gap,  he  saw  her  on  the  last  horse,  but  his  courage 
failed  him,  and  he  let  it  drop,  and  he  never  got  the 
chance  to  see  her  again. 

Why  she  wanted  the  nails  out  of  her  boots? 
Because  it's  well  known  they  will  have  nothing  to 
do  with  iron.  And  I  remember  when  every  child 
would  have  an  old  horse  nail  hung  round  its  neck 
with  a  bit  of  straw,  but  I  don't  see  it  done  now. 

There  was  another  man  though,  one  of  the  family 
of  the  Coneys  beyond  there,  and  his  wife  was  away 
from  him  four  years.  And  after  that  he  put  out 
the  old  hag  was  in  her  place,  and  got  his  wife  back 
and  reared  children  after  that,  and  one  of  them 
was  trained  a  priest. 

There  was  a  drunken  man  in  ScarifT,  and  one 
night  he  had  drink  taken  he  couldn't  get  home,  and 
fell  asleep  by  the  roadside  near  the  bridge.  And 
in  the  night  he  awoke  and  heard  them  at  work  with 


196  Visions  and  Beliefs 

cars  and  horses.  And  one  said  to  another,  "This 
work  is  too  heavy,  we'll  take  the  white  horse 
belonging  to  so  and  so  " — giving  the  name  of  a  rich 
man  in  the  town.  So  as  soon  as  it  was  light  he 
went  to  this  man,  and  told  him  what  he  had  heard 
them  say.  But  he  would  only  laugh  at  him  and 
say,  "I'll  pay  no  attention  to  what  a  drunkard 
dreams."  But  when  he  went  out  after  to  the 
stable,  his  white  horse  was  gone. 

That's  easy  understood.  They  are  shadows, 
and  how  could  a  shadow  move  anything?  But 
they  have  power  over  mankind  that  they  can 
bring  them  away  to  do  their  work. 

There  was  a  woman  used  to  go  out  among  them 
at  night,  and  she  said  to  her  sister,  "I'll  be  out  on 
a  white  horse  and  I'll  stop  and  knock  at  your 
door,"  and  so  she  would  do  sometimes. 

And  one  day  there  was  a  man  asked  her  for  a 
debt  she  owed,  and  she  said,  "I  have  no  money 
now."  But  then  she  put  her  hand  behind  her  and 
brought  it  back  filled  with  gold.  And  then  she 
rubbed  it  in  her  hand,  and  when  she  opened  the 
hand  there  was  nothing  in  it  but  dried  cow-dung. 
And  she  said,  "I  could  give  you  that  but  it  would 
be  no  use  to  you." 

An  Old  Woman  Talking  of  Cruachmaa: 
I  remember  my  father  being  there,   and  tell- 
ing me  of  a  girl  that  was  away  for  seven  years, 


Away  197 

and  all  thought  she  was  dead.  And  at  the  end  of 
the  seven  years  she  walked  back  one  day  into  her 
father's  house,  and  she  all  black-looking.  And  she 
said  she  was  married  there  and  had  two  children, 
but  they  died  and  then  she  was  driven  away.  And 
she  stopped  on  at  her  father's  house,  but  the  neigh- 
bours used  to  say  there  was  never  a  day  but  she'd 
go  up  the  hill  and  be  there  crying  for  one  or  two 
hours. 

An  Old  Woman  who  only  Speaks  Irish: 
I  remember  a  young  man  coming  to  the  island 
fourteen  years  ago  that  had  never  been  in  it  before 
and  that  knew  everything  that  was  in  it,  and  could 
tell  you  as  much  as  to  the  stones  of  the  chimney 
in  every  house.  And  after  a  few  days  he  was  gone 
and  never  came  again,  for  they  brought  him  about 
to  every  part.  But  I  saw  him  and  spoke  to  him 
myself. 

Mr.  Sullivan: 

There  was  a  man  had  buried  his  wife,  and  she 
left  three  children.  And  then  he  took  a  second 
wife,  and  she  did  away  with  the  children,  hurried 
them  off  to  America,  and  the  like.  But  the  first 
wife  used  to  be  seen  up  in  the  loft,  and  she  making 
a  plan  of  revenge  against  the  other  wife. 

The  second  one  had  one  son  and  three  daughters ; 
and  one  day  the  son  was  out  digging  the  field,  and 
presently  he  went  into  what  is  called  a  faery  hole. 
And  there  was  a  woman  came  before  him,  and, 


198  Visions  and  Beliefs 

says  she,  ' '  what  are  you  doing  here  trespassing  on 
my  ground  ? ' '  And  with  that  she  took  a  stone  and 
hit  him  in  the  head,  and  he  died  with  the  blow  of 
the  stone  she  gave  him.  And  all  the  people  said 
it  was  by  the  faeries  he  was  taken. 

Peter  Henderson: 

There  was  a  first  cousin  of  mine  used  sometimes 
to  go  out  the  house,  that  none  would  see  him  going. 
And  one  night  his  brother  followed  him,  and  he 
went  down  a  path  to  the  sea,  and  then  he  went  into 
a  hole  in  the  rocks,  that  the  smallest  dog  wouldn't 
go  into.  And  the  brother  took  hold  of  his  feet 
and  drew  him  out  again.  He  went  to  America 
after  that,  and  is  living  there  now;  and  sometimes 
in  his  room  they'll  see  him  kicking  and  laughing 
as  if  some  were  with  him. 

One  night  when  some  of  the  neighbours  from 
these  islands  were  with  him,  he  told  them  he'd 
been  back  to  Inishmaan,  and  told  all  that  was  going 
on.  And  some  would  not  believe  him.  And  he 
said,  "You'll  believe  me  next  time. "  So  the  next 
night  he  told  them  again  he  had  been  there,  and 
he  brought  out  of  his  pocket  a  couple  of  boiled 
potatoes  and  a  bit  of  fish  and  showed  them,  so 
then  they  all  believed  it. 

An  Old  Man  from  the  State  of  Maine  says,  hear- 
ing  this: 

I  knew  him  in  America,  and  he  used  often  to  visit 
this  island,  and  would  know  about  all  of  them  were 


Away  199 

living,  and  would  bring  us  word  of  them,  and  all 
he'd  tell  us  would  turn  out  right.  He's  living  yet 
in  America. 

An  Aran  Woman: 

There  was  a  woman  in  Killinny  was  dying,  and 
it  was  she  used  to  be  minding  the  Lodge  over  there, 
and  when  she  was  near  death  her  own  little  girl 
went  out,  and  she  saw  her  standing,  and  a  black- 
haired  woman  with  her.  And  she  came  back  and 
said  to  her  father  "Don't  be  fretting,  my  mother's 
not  there  in  the  bed,  I  saw  her  up  by  the  Lodge 
and  a  black  woman  with  her,  that  took  her  in  with 
her."  And  there  was  a  man  from  Arklow  there, 
and  he  said,  "That's  not  your  wife  at  all  that's  in 
the  bed — that's  not  Maggie  Mulkair.  That  is  a 
black  woman  and  Maggie  Mulkair  is  red-haired." 
And  the  husband  looked  in  the  bed,  and  so  it 
wasn't  Maggie  Mulkair  that  was  in  it,  but  at 
that  minute  she  died.  It's  well  known  they  bring 
back  the  old  to  put  in  the  place  of  the  young. 

There  was  a  girl  in  the  County  Clare,  and  she 
went  to  get  married,  and  she  and  the  husband 
were  riding  back  on  the  one  horse  and  it  slipped 
and  fell.  And  when  she  got  to  the  house,  she  sat 
quiet  and  not  a  word  out  of  her.  And  everybody 
said  she  used  to  be  a  pleasant,  jolly  girl,  but  this 
was  like  an  old  woman. 

And  she  sat  there  by  the  hob  for  three  days  and 
she  didn't  turn  her  face  to  the  people.     But  the 


200  Visions  and  Beliefs 

husband  said,  "Let  her  alone,  maybe  she's  shy 
yet."  But  his  mother  got  angry  at  last  and  she 
said,  "I'd  sooner  be  rubbing  stones  on  the  clothes 
than  watching  an  idle  woman."  And  she  went 
out  to  the  flax  and  she  said  to  the  girl,  "You'd  best 
get  the  dinner  ready  before  the  men  come  in." 
But  when  she  came  in  there  was  nothing  done; 
and  she  gave  her  a  blow  with  some  pieces  of  the 
flax  that  were  in  her  hand,  and  said,  "Get  out  of 
this  for  a  good-for-nothing  woman!"  And  with 
that  she  went  up  the  chimney  and  was  gone.  And 
the  mother  got  the  dinner  ready,  and  then  she  went 
out,  not  knowing  in  the  world  how  to  tell  the  hus- 
band what  she  had  done.  But  when  she  got  to  the 
field  where  they  were  working,  there  was  the  girl 
walking  down  the  hill,  and  she  took  the  two  hands 
of  the  mother  and  said, ' '  It's  well  for  me  you  hadn't 
patience  to  last  two  days  more  or  I'd  never  have 
got  back,  but  I  never  touched  any  of  the  food  while 
I  was  with  them." 

Mrs.  Casey: 

There  was  a  girl  one  time,  and  a  boy  wanted  to 
marry  her,  but  the  father  and  mother  wouldn't 
let  her  have  him,  for  he  had  no  money.  And  he 
died,  and  they  made  a  match  for  her  with  another. 
And  one  day  she  was  out  going  to  her  cousins' 
house,  and  he  came  before  her  and  put  out  his 
hand  and  said,  "You  promised  yourself  tome,  and 
come  with  me  now. "  And  she  ran,  and  when  she 
got  to  the  house  she  fell  on  the  floor.     And  the 


Away  201 

cousins  thought  she  had  taken  a  drop  of  drink, 
and  they  began  to  scold  her. 

Another  day  after  that  she  was  walking  with 
her  husband  and  her  brother,  and  a  little  white 
dog  with  them,  and  they  came  to  a  little  lake. 
And  he  appeared  to  her  again,  and  the  husband 
and  the  brother  didn't  see  him,  but  the  dog  flew  at 
him,  and  began  barking  at  him  and  he  was  hitting 
at  the  dog  with  a  stick,  and  all  the  time  trying  to 
get  hold  of  the  girl's  hand.  And  the  husband  and 
the  brother  wondered  what  the  dog  was  barking  at 
and  why  it  drew  down  to  the  lake  in  the  end,  and 
out  into  the  water.  For  it  was  into  it  that  he 
was  wanting  to  draw  the  girl. 

It's  a  strange  thing  that  you'll  see  a  man  in  his 
coffin  and  buried;  and  maybe  a  fortnight  after, 
the  neighbours  will  tell  you  they  saw  him  walk- 
ing about.  There  was  one  Flaherty  lived  up  at 
Johnny  Reed's  and  he  died.  And  a  few  days  later 
Johnny  Reed's  sister  and  another  woman  went  out 
with  baskets  of  turnips  to  the  field  where  the  sheep 
were,  to  throw  them  out  for  them.  And  when  they 
got  to  the  field  they  could  see  Flaherty  walking, 
just  in  the  same  clothes  he  had  before  he  died,  long 
skirts  and  a  jacket,  and  frieze  trousers.  So  they 
left  the  turnips  and  came  away. 

There  was  a  man  up  there  near  Loughrea,  one 
of  the  Mahers,  was  away  for  seven  years.     In  the 


202  Visions  and  Beliefs 

night  he'd  be  taken,  and  sometimes  in  the  day- 
time when  he  was  in  the  bed  sick,  that's  the  time 
he'd  be  along  with  them;  riding  out  and  going  out 
across  the  bay,  going  as  fast  as  the  wind  in  the  sky. 
Did  he  like  to  be  with  them?  Not  at  all,  he'd 
sooner  be  at  home ;  and  it  is  bad  for  the  health  too 
to  be  going  out  these  rough  nights.  There  were 
three  men  near  him  that  had  horses,  Daniel  O'Dea 
and  Farragher  and  Flynn,  and  he  told  them  they 
should  sell  their  horses.  And  Daniel  O'Dea  and 
Farragher  sold  theirs,  but  the  other  man  wouldn't 
mind  him.  And  after  a  few  days  his  horse  died. 
Of  course  they  had  been  with  him  at  night  riding 
their  own  horses,  and  that's  how  he  knew  what 
would  happen  and  gave  the  warning. 

The  Spinning  Woman: 

There  was  a  man  got  married,  and  he  began  to 
pine  away,  and  after  a  few  weeks  the  mother  asked 
him  what  ailed  him.  And  he  opened  his  coat  and 
showed  her  his  breast  inside,  that  it  was  all  torn 
and  bloody.  And  he  said:  "That's  the  way  I  am; 
and  that's  what  she  does  to  me  in  the  nights." 
So  the  mother  brought  her  out  and  bid  her  to  pick 
the  green  flax,  and  she  was  against  touching  it,  but 
the  mother  made  her.  And  no  sooner  had  she 
touched  three  blades  of  it  but  she  said,  "I'm  gone 
now, "  and  away  with  her.  And  when  they  went 
back  to  the  room  they  found  the  daughter  lying 
in  a  deep  sleep,  where  she  had  just  been  put 
back. 


Away  203 

An  Old  Woman  at  Kinvara: 

There  was  a  woman  put  in  her  coffin  for  dead, 
but  a  man  that  was  passing  by  knew  that  she  wasn't 
dead,  and  he  brought  her  away  and  married  her 
and  lived  with  her  for  seven  years,  and  had  seven 
children  by  her.  And  one  day  he  brought  her  to 
a  fair  near  the  place  she  came  from,  and  the  people 
that  saw  her  said:  "If  that  woman  that  died  ever 
had  a  sister,  that  would  be  her  sister."  So  he  let 
it  out  to  them  then  about  her.  But  his  mother 
always  minded  her,  that  she  wouldn't  wet  her 
hands.  But  one  day  the  mother  was  hurried,  and 
the  woman  made  a  cake.  And  after  making  it 
she  washed  her  hands,  and  with  that  they  had  her 
again  and  she  went  from  the  husband  and  from 
her  children. 

A  Herd: 

One  time  I  was  tending  this  farm  for  Flaherty, 
and  I  came  in  late  one  evening  after  being  out  with 
cattle,  and  I  sent  my  wife  for  an  ounce  of  tobacco, 
and  I  stopped  in  the  house  with  the  child.  And 
after  a  time  I  heard  the  rattle  of  the  door,  and  the 
wife  came  in  half  out  of  her  mind.  She  said  she 
was  walking  the  road  and  she  met  four  men,  and 
she  knew  that  they  were  not  of  this  world,  and 
she  fell  on  the  road  with  the  fright  she  got,  but  she 
thought  one  of  them  was  her  brother,  and  he  put 
his  hand  under  her  head  when  she  fell,  so  that  she 
got  no  hurt.  And  for  a  long  time  after  she  wasn't 
in  her  right  mind,  and  she'd  bring  the  child  out  in 


204  Visions  and  Beliefs 

the  field,  to  see  her  brother.  And  at  last  I  brought 
her  to  the  priest,  and  when  we  were  on  the  way 
there  she  called  out  that  those  fields  of  stones 
were  full  of  them,  and  they  all  dressed  in  tall  hats 
and  black  coats.  But  the  priest  read  something 
over  her  and  she's  been  free  from  them  since  then. 

There  were  three  women  died  within  a  year,  one 
here,  John  Harragher's  wife,  and  two  at  Inishmaan. 
And  the  year  after  they  were  all  seen  together, 
riding  on  white  horses  at  the  other  side  of  the 
island. 

There  were  two  young  women  lived  over  in  that 
village  you  see  there,  and  they  were  not  good 
friends,  for  they  were  in  two  public  houses.  And 
one  of  them  died  in  January,  after  her  baby  being 
born.  Some  said  it  was  because  of  her  mother  or 
the  nurse  giving  her  strong  tea,  but  it  wasn't 
that,  it  was  because  her  time  had  come.  And 
when  the  other  woman  heard  it  she  said  to  her 
husband,  "Give  me  the  concertina,  and  I'll  play 
till  you  dance  for  joy  that  Mrs.  Considine  is 
gone."  But  in  April  her  own  child  was  born,  and 
though  the  doctor  tried  to  save  her  he  couldn't 
and  she  died. 

And  since  then  they're  often  seen  to  appear 
walking  together.  People  wonder  to  see  them 
together,  and  they  not  friends  while  they  lived. 
But  it's  bad  to  give  way  to  temper,  and  who  is 
nearer  to  us  than  a  neighbour? 


Away  205 

A  Young  Woman: 

I  know  a  girl  that  lost  her  mother  soon  after  she 
was  born.  And  surely  the  mother  came  back  to  her 
every  night  and  suckled  her,  for  she'd  lie  as  quiet 
as  could  be,  without  a  bottle  or  a  hap'orth  and 
they'd  hear  her  sucking.  And  one  night  the  grand- 
mother felt  her  daughter  that  was  gone  lying  in 
the  clothes,  and  made  a  grab  at  her,  but  she  was 
gone.  Maybe  she'd  have  kept  her  if  she'd  taken 
her  time,  for  there's  charms  to  bring  such  back. 
But  the  little  girl  grew,  that  she  was  never  the 
same  in  the  morning  that  she  was  the  night  before, 
and  there's  no  finer  girl  in  the  island  now.  I  call 
to  my  own  mother  sometimes  when  things  go 
wrong  with  me,  and  I  think  I'm  always  the  better 
of  it.  And  I  often  say  those  that  are  gone  are 
troubled  with  those  they  leave  behind.  But  God 
have  mercy  on  all  the  mothers  of  the  world! 

Mrs.  Maker: 

There  was  a  woman  with  her  husband  passing 
by  Esserkelly,  and  she  had  left  her  child  at  home. 
And  a  man  came  and  called  her  in,  and  promised  to 
leave  her  on  the  road  where  she  was  before.  So 
she  went,  and  there  was  a  baby  in  the  place  she 
was  brought  to,  and  they  asked  her  to  suckle  it. 
And  when  she  had  come  out  again  she  said,  "One 
question  I'll  ask.  What  were  those  two  old  women 
sitting  by  the  fire  ? ' '  And  the  man  said , ' '  We  took 
the  child  today,  and  we'll  have  the  mother  tonight 
and  one  of  them  will  be  put  in  her  place,  and  the 


206  Visions  and  Beliefs 

other  in  the  place  of  some  other  person."     And 
then  he  left  her  where  she  was  before. 

But  there's  no  harm  in  them,  no  harm  at  all. 

Tom  Hislop: 

Scully  told  me  he  was  by  the  hedge  up  there 
by  Ballinamantane  one  evening  and  a  blast  came, 
and  as  it  passed  he  heard  something  crying,  crying, 
and  he  knew  by  the  sound  that  it  was  a  child  that 
they  were  carrying  away. 

And  a  woman  brought  in  at  Esserkelly  heard  a 
baby  crying  and  a  woman  singing  to  it  not  to  fret, 
for  such  a  woman  would  die  that  night  or  the  next 
and  would  come  to  mind  her.  And  the  very  next 
night  the  woman  she  heard  the  name  of  died  in 
childbirth. 

At  Aughanish  there  were  two  couples  came  to  the 
shore  to  be  married,  and  one  of  the  new-married 
women  was  in  the  boat  with  the  priest,  and  they 
going  back  to  the  island.  And  a  sudden  blast  of 
wind  came,  and  the  priest  said  some  blessed  Aves 
that  were  able  to  save  himself,  but  the  girl  was 
swept. 

Peter  Hanrahan: 

No,  I  never  went  to  Biddy  Early.  What  would 
they  want  with  the  like  of  me?  It's  the  good  and 
the  pious  they  come  for. 

I   remember   fourteen   years   ago   how   eleven 


Away  207 

women  were  taken  in  childbirth  from  this  parish. 
But  as  to  the  old,  what  business  would  they  have 
with  them?  They'd  be  nothing  but  a  bother  to 
them.  There  was  a  woman  living  by  the  road 
that  goes  to  Scahanagh,  and  one  day  a  carriage 
stopped  at  her  door,  and  a  grand  lady  came  out  of 
it,  and  asked  would  she  come  and  give  the  breast 
to  her  child,  and  she  said  she  couldn't  leave  her 
own  children.  But  the  lady  said  no  harm  would 
happen  her,  and  brought  her  away  to  a  big  house, 
but  when  she  got  there  she  wouldn't  stop,  but 
went  home  again.  And  in  the  morning  the 
woman's  cow  was  dead.  And  the  husband  that 
had  a  card  for  carding  flax  looked  through  it;  and 
in  the  place  of  the  cow,  there  was  nothing  but  an 
old  man. 

And  there  was  a  man  and  a  girl  that  gave  one 
another  a  hard  promise  he  never  to  marry  any 
other  woman,  and  she  never  to  marry  any  other 
man.  But  he  broke  his  promise  and  married 
another.  And  the  girl  died,  and  one  night  he  saw 
a  sort  of  a  shadow  coming  across  the  grass,  and 
she  spoke  to  him,  and  it  was  the  girl  he  had  prom- 
ised to  marry,  and  she  kept  him  in  talk  till  mid- 
night. And  she  came  every  night  after  that,  and 
would  stop  till  midnight,  and  he  began  to  waste 
away  and  to  get  thin,  and  his  wife  asked  him  what 
was  on  him,  and  she  picked  out  of  him  what  it  was. 
And  after  that  the  girl  asked  him  to  come  and 
save  her,  and  she  would  be  on  the  second  first 


208  Visions  and  Beliefs 

horse  going  through  a  gap.  And  he  went,  and 
when  he  got  there  his  courage  failed,  and  he  did 
nothing  to  save  her,  but  after  that  he  never  saw 
her  again. 

Mrs.  Roche: 

There  was  a  woman  used  to  go  away  with  them, 
and  they'd  leave  her  at  the  doorstep  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  she  wouldn't  be  the  better  for  a  long  time 
of  all  she'd  gone  through.  She  got  out  of  it  after, 
and  was  a  fine  woman  when  I  knew  her. 

My  mother  told  me  of  a  woman  that  used  to  go 
with  them,  and  one  night  they  were  passing  by  a 
house,  and  there  was  no  clean  water  in  it,  and  it 
was  readied  up.  And  they  said,  "We'll  have  the 
blood  of  the  man  of  the  house."  And  there  was  a 
big  pot  of  broth  on  the  fire  for  the  morning,  for  the 
poor  people  had  no  tea  in  those  days;  and  the 
woman  said,  "Won't  broth  do  you?"  And  they 
took  the  broth.  And  in  the  morning  early,  the 
woman  after  she  was  left  back  went  to  the  house, 
and  there  was  the  woman  of  the  house  getting 
ready  the  broth,  for  it  looked  just  like  it  did  be- 
fore. And  she  said,  "Throw  it  out  before  you  lose 
your  husband."  For  she  knew  that  the  first 
that  would  taste  it  would  die,  and  that  it's  to  the 
man  of  the  house  that  the  first  share  is  always 
given. 

My  mother  was  always  wanting  to  call  one  of 
her  children  Pat,  the  name  of  her  own  father,  but 


Away  209 

my  father  always  made  her  give  them  some  differ- 
ent name.  But  when  one  of  the  youngest  was 
born  he  said,  "Give  him  what  name  you  like." 
So  they  gave  him  the  name  of  her  father;  and  he 
was  like  the  apple  of  her  eye,  she  was  so  fond  of 
him.  But  a  sickness  came  on  him  and  he  wasted 
away,  and  she  went  to  a  strange  forge  and  brought 
forge  water  away,  for  she  wouldn't  take  it  from 
our  own  forge,  and  gave  him  a  drink  of  it.  And  I 
saw  her  and  I  said  to  her,  "I'll  tell  my  father  you're 
giving  forge  water  to  Paddy."  And  she  said,  "If 
you  do  I'll  kill  you,"  so  I  said  nothing.  And  she 
gave  him  a  second  drink  of  it  and  not  a  third,  for 
he  was  gone  before  he  could  get  it.  If  it  had  been 
her  own  child,  it  would  have  saved  him,  but  she 
told  me  after  she  knew  it  was  another,  his  knee- 
caps were  so  big  and  other  parts  of  his  body. 

There  was  another  little  one  she  lost.  She  was 
sitting  one  time  nursing  it  outside  the  door,  and  a 
lady  and  a  gentleman  came  up  the  road,  and  the 
lady  said,  "Who  are  you  nursing  the  child  for?" 
And  she  said,  "For  no  one  in  the  world  but  God 
and  myself. "  And  then  the  lady  and  the  gentle- 
man were  gone  and  no  sign  of  them,  though  it  was 
a  straight  road,  you  know  that  long  straight  road 
in  Galway  that  goes  by  Prospect,  and  it  wasn't 
many  days  after  that  when  the  child  got  ill,  and 
in  a  few  days  it  was  dead.  And  when  it  was  lying 
there  stretched  out  on  two  chairs,  the  lady  came 
in  again  and  looked  at  it  and  said,  "What  a  pity!" 
And  then  she  said,  "It's  gone  to  a  better  place." 

VOL.   I — 14 


210  Visions  and  Beliefs 

" I  hope  it  may  be  so,"  said  my  mother,  stiff  like 
that;  and  she  went  away. 

I  was  delicate  one  time  myself,  and  I  lost  my 
walk,  and  one  of  the  neighbours  told  my  mother 
it  wasn't  myself  that  was  there.  But  my  mother 
said  she'd  soon  find  that  out,  for  she'd  tell  me  that 
she  was  going  to  get  a  herb  that  would  cure  me,  and 
if  it  was  myself  I'd  want  it,  but  if  I  was  another 
I'd  be  against  it.  So  she  came  in  and  she  said  to 
me,  "I'm  going  to  Dangan  to  look  for  the lus-mor, 
that  will  soon  cure  you."  And  from  that  day  I 
gave  her  no  peace  till  she'd  go  to  Dangan  and  get 
it ;  so  she  knew  that  I  was  all  right.  She  told  me 
all  this  afterwards. 

M.  Cushin: 

It  is  about  the  forths  they  are,  not  about  the 
churchyards.  The  Amadan  is  the  worst  of  them 
all. 

They  say  people  are  brought  away  by  them. 
I  knew  a  girl  one  time  near  Ballyvaughan  was  said 
to  be  with  them  for  nine  months.  She  never  eat 
anything  all  that  time,  but  the  food  used  to  go  all 
the  same. 

There  was  a  man  called  Hession  died  at  that 
time  and  after  the  funeral  she  began  to  laugh,  and 
they  asked  her  what  was  she  laughing  at,  and  she 
said,  "You  would  all  be  laughing  yourselves  if  you 
could  open  the  coffin  and  see  what  it  is  you  were 
carrying  in  it."  The  priest  heard  of  her  saying 
that  and  he  was  vexed. 


Away  211 

Did  they  open  the  coffin?  They  did  not,  where 
would  be  the  use,  for  whatever  was  in  it  would  be 
in  the  shape  of  some  person,  young  or  old.  They 
would  see  nothing  by  looking  at  that. 

There  was  a  woman  near  Feakle,  Mrs.  Colman, 
brought  away  for  seven  years;  she  was  the  priest's 
sister.  But  she  came  back  to  her  husband  after, 
and  she  cured  till  the  day  of  her  death  came  every 
kind  of  sores,  just  putting  her  hand  on  them  and 
saying,  "In  the  Name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost." 

There  was  a  man  in  Gort  was  brought  for  a 
time  to  Tir-ran-og,  that  is  a  part  of  heaven. 

A  North  Galway  Woman: 

There  was  a  woman  died  near  this  after  her 
baby  being  born,  and  there  was  only  the  father 
to  mind  it.  And  a  girl  of  the  neighbours  that  came 
in  to  watch  it  one  night  said  that  surely  she  saw 
the  mother  come  back  to  it,  and  stoop  down  to  the 
cradle  and  give  it  the  breast.  And  anyway  she 
grew  and  throve  better  than  any  other  child 
around.  And  there  was  a  woman  died  near 
Monivea,  and  sometimes  in  the  daytime  they'd 
see  her  in  the  garden  combing  the  children's  hair. 

There  was  a  Connemara  man  digging  potatoes 
in  that  field  beyond,  and  he  told  us  that  back  in 
Connemara  there  was  a  woman  died,  and  a  few 
nights  after  she  came  back  and  the  husband  saw 


212  Visions  and  Beliefs 

her.  And  she  said,  "Let  you  not  put  a  hand  on 
me  yourself,  but  I'll  come  back  tomorrow  night  and 
others  with  me,  and  let  me  not  cross  the  threshold 
when  we  are  going  out,  but  let  your  brother  be 
there  that  has  the  strength  of  six  men  in  him,  and 
let  him  hold  me. ' '  And  so  they  did,  and  she  reared 
four  children  after. 

There  was  a  woman  died  two  houses  from  this, 
and  it  wasn't  many  days  after  she  being  buried  the 
woman  in  the  next  house,  Sibby  her  name  is, 
came  in  here  in  the  morning,  and  she  told  me  she 
saw  her  coming  in  here  the  night  before.  And  the 
sweat  was  on  Sibby's  face  and  she  said, ' '  God  knows 
I  am  speaking  the  truth.  Why  would  I  put  a  lie 
on  that  poor  woman?"  And  why  would  she 
indeed? 

And  she  said  that  in  the  night  when  she  was  in 
her  bed,  and  two  or  three  children  along  with  her, 
the  woman  that  had  died  came  beside  the  bed  and 
called  her,  and  then  she  went  out  and  said,  "I'll 
come  again  and  I'll  bring  my  company  with  me." 

And  so  she  did,  for  she  came  back  and  her  com- 
pany with  her,  and  they  with  umbrellas  and  hats 
in  their  hands,  dressed  grand,  just  now  like  the 
servants  at  Newtown.  And  she  stooped  over  the 
bed  again,  and  she  said,  "It  was  through  Thomas 
I  was  lost."  For  there  was  one  of  her  sons  was 
called  Thomas,  and  coming  home  one  day  he  got 
a  little  turn  of  his  foot,  that  the  mother  was  doing 
what  she  could  for  with  herbs  and  the  like  for  a 


Away  213 

long  time,  so  that  he  got  well  all  but  a  little  limp. 
So  that's  why  she  said  that  it  was  through  Thomas 
she  was  lost.  And  she  said,  "There'll  be  a  station 
at  Athenry  on  such  a  day,  and  send  three  of  the 
children" — and  she  named  the  three — "to  do  it  for 
me."  And  so  they  did,  and  she  was  seen  no  more. 
And  I'm  sure  it  was  no  lie  Sibby  was  telling.  And 
she  told  the  priest  about  what  she  saw  and  all  he 
said  was,  "Well,  if  you  saw  that  you're  happy." 

There  was  a  woman  died,  and  every  night  she'd 
come  back  and  bring  the  baby  to  the  fire,  and  dress 
it  and  suckle  it.  And  the  brother  got  to  speak  with 
her  one  night,  and  she  said,  "Oh  why  wasn't  I  put 
in  the  coffin  with  my  own  dress  on  that  I  was  wear- 
ing? It's  ashamed  I  was  to  go  into  such  a  crowd 
and  such  a  congregation  with  nothing  about  me 
but  a  white  sheet.  And  if  it  wasn't  that  I  saw  a 
boy  of  the  neighbours  among  them  that  I  knew 
before,  I  would  have  been  very  lonely." 

There  were  two  boys  that  were  comrades,  and 
if  you'd  see  Dermot  you'd  say,  "Where  is  Pat?" 
And  if  you'd  see  Pat  you'd  say,  "Where  is  Der- 
mot?" And  one  of  them  died,  and  everybody 
wondered  at  the  comrade  not  being  all  the  day  to 
the  corpse-house.  And  when  he  came  in  the  even- 
ing he  took  a  pinch  of  snufl,  and  he  held  it  to  the 
nose  of  the  boy  that  was  laid  out  on  the  table  and 
he  saw  it  sniff  a  little.  So  he  made  up  the  fire  and 
he  called  another  boy,  and  they  laid  the  body  down 


214  Visions  and  Beliefs 

behind  the  fire;  and  if  they  did  away  with  it,  the 
boy  himself  came  walking  in  at  the  door. 

There  was  a  girl  I  heard  of  brought  away  among 
them — and  there  was  the  finest  of  eating  to  be  had. 
But  there's  always  a  friend  in  such  places,  and  she 
got  warning  not  to  eat  a  bit  of  the  food  without 
she'd  get  salt  with  it.  So  when  they  put  her  down 
to  eat,  she  asked  a  grain  of  salt,  but  not  a  grain 
was  to  be  had.  So  she  would  eat  nothing.  But 
I  believe  they  did  away  with  her  after. 

John  Phelan: 

Mike  Folan  was  here  the  other  day  telling  us 
newses,  and  he  told  the  strangest  thing  ever  I 
heard — that  happened  to  his  own  first  cousin. 
She  died  and  was  buried,  and  a  year  after,  her 
husband  was  sitting  by  the  fire,  and  she  came  back 
and  walked  in.  He  gave  a  start,  but  she  said, 
"Have  no  fear  of  me,  I  was  never  in  the  coffin  and 
never  buried,  but  I  was  kept  away  for  the  year." 
So  he  took  her  again  and  they  reared  four  children 
after  that.  She  was  Mike  Folan 's  own  first  cousin 
and  he  saw  the  four  children  himself. 

An  Old  Army  Man: 

My  family  were  of  the  Glynns  of  Athenry. 
I  had  an  aunt  that  married  a  man  of  the  name  of 
Roche,  and  their  child  was  taken.  So  they 
brought  it  to  the  Lady  Well  near  Athenry,  where 


Away  215 

there's  patterns  every  fifteenth  of  August,  to  duck 
it.  And  such  a  ducking  they  gave  it  that  it 
walked  away  on  crutches,  and  it  swearing.  And 
their  own  child  they  got  back  again,  but  he  didn't 
live  long  after  that. 

There  was  a  man  I  know,  that  was  my  comrade 
often,  used  to  be  taken  away  for  nights,  and  he'd 
speak  of  the  journeys  he  had  with  them.  And  he 
got  severe  treatment  and  didn't  want  to  go,  but 
they'd  bring  him  by  force.  He  recovered  after, 
and  joined  the  army,  and  I  was  never  so  surprised 
as  I  was  the  day  he  walked  in  when  I  was  in  India. 

Mrs.  Brown: 

There  was  a  woman  in  Tuam,  Mrs.  Shannon 
knew  her  well,  was  said  to  be  away  for  seven  years. 
And  she  was  always  sitting  in  the  corner  by  the 
fire,  not  speaking,  but  a  kind  of  a  sound  like  moan- 
ing she'd  make  to  herself;  and  they'd  always  bring 
her  her  dinner  over  in  the  corner,  and  if  any  one 
came  in  to  see  her — and  many  came  hearing  she 
was  away — she'd  draw  the  shawl  over  her  face. 
And  at  the  end  of  the  seventh  year  she  began  to  get 
a  little  life  and  strength  coming  in  to  her,  and  with- 
in a  week  she  was  strong  and  well,  and  lived  a 
good  many  years  after.  And  it's  not  long  since 
some  one  that  had  a  falling  out  with  her  daughters 
said  to  them,  "It's  well  known  your  mother  was 
away  in  Cruachmaa."  And  the  poor  girls  when 
they  heard  that  said  cried  a  great  deal. 


216  Visions  and  Beliefs 

Mrs.  Casey: 

Some  people  from  Lismara  I  was  talking  to  told 
me  there  was  a  girl  the  mother  thought  to  be 
away,  and  she'd  go  out  in  the  evening.  And  the 
mother  followed  her  one  time,  and  after  she  went 
a  bit  into  the  fields  she  saw  her  with  an  old  woman 
very  strangely  dressed,  with  a  white  cap  with  an 
edging,  and  a  green  shawl  and  a  black  apron  and 
a  red  petticoat.  And  the  woman  was  smoking, 
and  she  gave  the  girl  a  smoke  of  the  pipe.  And 
the  mother  went  home,  and  by  and  by  the  girl 
came  in,  and  she  smelling  of  tobacco.  And  the 
mother  asked  where  was  she  ?  And  she  said,  in  some 
neighbour's  house ;  and  the  mother  knew  she  wasn't 
there,  but  that  she  was  going  with  the  faeries. 
And  two  or  three  days  after  that,  they  had  her 
taken  altogether ;  and  the  clergy  that  attended  her 
said  it  was  some  old  hag  that  was  put  in  her  place. 

Mrs.  Oliver: 

There  was  Farly  Folan's  wife  going,  going, 
and  all  the  night  they  thought  that  she  was  at  the 
last  puff.  But  the  minute  the  cock  crew,  she 
sat  up  straight  and  strong.  "I  had  a  hard  fight 
for  it,"  she  said,  "but  care  me  well  now  ye  have 
me  back  again."  And  she  lived  a  bit,  but  not 
long,  after  that. 

That  child  of  the  Latteys  that  is  silly,  she  was 
walking  about  today  shaking  hands  with  every- 
one that  would  come  into  the  house.  And  the 
reason  she's  like  that  is,  when  she  was  born  the 


Away  217 

breath  had  left  her  and  the  mother  began  to  cry 
and  to  scream  and  to  roar,  and  then  the  breath 
came  back.  She  had  a  right  to  have  let  her  go 
and  not  to  have  brought  her  back. 

There's  a  girl  of  Fardy  Folan's  is  said  to  be  away. 
Anyway  she's  a  fool,  and  a  blow  from  her  would 
kill  you,  it  is  always  like  that  with  a  fool.  And 
it  was  her  mother  I  told  you  of  that  was  as  they 
thought  gone,  and  that  sat  up  again  and  said, 
"Take  care  of  me  now,  I  had  a  hard  fight  for  it." 
But  indeed  she  didn't  live  long  after  that. 

Mrs.  Feeney: 

When  one  is  taken,  the  body  is  taken  as  well  as 
the  spirit,  and  some  good-for-nothing  thing  left  in 
its  place.  What  they  take  them  for  is  to  work 
for  them,  and  to  do  things  they  can't  do  them- 
selves. You  might  notice  it's  always  the  good 
they  take.  That's  why  when  we  see  a  child  good 
for  nothing  we  say,  "Ah,  you  little  faery." 

There  was  a  man  lost  his  wife  and  a  hag  was  put 
in  her  place,  and  she  came  back  and  told  him  to 
come  out  at  night  where  she'd  be  riding  with  the 
rest,  and  to  throw  something  belonging  to  her 
after  her — he'd  know  her  by  her  being  on  a  white 
horse.  And  so  he  did  and  got  her  back  again. 
And  when  they  were  going  home  he  said,  "I'll 
have  the  life  of  that  old  hag  that  was  put  in  your 
place. "  But  when  they  got  to  the  house,  she  was 
out  of  it  before  him,  and  was  never  heard  of  again. 


218  Visions  and  Beliefs 

There  was  a  man  telling  me  it  was  in  a  house 
where  the  woman  was  after  a  youngster,  and  she 
died,  that  is,  we'll  call  it  died,  but  she  was  taken, 
that  the  husband  saw  her  coming  back  to  give  the 
breast  to  the  child  and  to  wash  it.  And  the  second 
night  he  got  hold  of  her  and  held  her  until  morning, 
and  when  the  cock  crowed  she  sat  down  again  and 
stayed ;  they  had  no  more  power  over  her. 

Surely  some  go  among  them  for  seven  years. 
There  was  Kitty  Hayes  lived  at  Kilcloud,  for 
seven  years  she  had  everything  she  could  want,  and 
music  and  dancing  could  be  heard  around  her 
house  every  night,  and  all  she  did  prospered;  but 
she  ate  no  food  all  that  time,  only  she  took  a  drink 
of  the  milk  after  the  butter  being  churned.  But 
at  the  end  of  the  seven  years  all  left  her,  and  she 
was  glad  at  the  last  to  get  Indian  meal. 

There  was  a  man  driving  cattle  from  Craugh- 
well  to  Athenry  for  a  fair.  And  it  was  before  sun- 
rise and  dark,  and  presently  he  saw  a  light  by  the 
side  of  the  road,  and  he  was  glad  of  it,  for  he  had  no 
matches  and  he  wanted  to  light  his  pipe  to  smoke 
it.  So  he  turned  aside,  and  there  were  some  people 
sitting  there,  and  they  brought  him  in,  through  a 
sort  of  a  door  and  asked  him  to  sit  down.  And  so 
he  did,  and  he  saw  that  they  were  all  strangers, 
not  one  he  knew  among  them.  And  there  was  a 
fire  and  they  put  food  and  drink  on  the  table,  and 
asked  him  what  would  he  have.     And  there  op- 


Away  219 

posite  him  he  saw  his  own  cows  that  were  brought 
in  too,  and  he  knew  that  he  was  in  a  faery  place. 
But  in  all  these  places  there's  always  one  well- 
wisher,  so  while  he  was  sitting  there,  an  old  woman 
came  to  him  and  whispered  in  his  ear,  "Don't  for 
your  life  eat  a  bit  or  drink  a  drop  of  what  they  give 
you,  or  you'll  never  go  away  again."  So  he  would 
take  nothing.  If  it  hadn't  been  for  the  old  woman, 
he  might  have  taken  something,  just  not  to  vex 
them.  And  at  sunrise  they  let  him  out,  and  he 
was  on  the  road  again  and  his  cattle  before  him. 

Well,  when  he  was  coming  back  from  the  fair, 
there  were  two  men  with  him,  and  he  pointed  them 
out  the  place  where  all  this  happened,  for  when 
three  persons  are  together,  there's  no  fear  of  any- 
thing and  they  can  say  what  they  like.  And  the 
others  told  him  it  was  a  faery  place  and  many 
strange  things  had  happened  there.  And  they 
told  him  how  there  was  a  woman  had  a  baby  lived 
close  by  there,  and  before  it  was  a  week  old  her 
husband  had  to  leave  her  because  of  his  brother 
having  died.  And  no  sooner  was  she  left  alone 
than  she  was  taken,  and  they  sent  for  the  priest 
to  say  Mass  in  the  house,  but  she  was  calling  out 
every  sort  of  thing  they  couldn't  understand,  and 
within  a  few  days  she  was  dead. 

And  after  death  the  corpse  began  to  change,  and 
first  it  looked  like  an  old  woman,  and  then  like  an 
old  man,  and  they  had  to  bury  it  the  next  day. 
And  before  a  week  was  over  she  began  to  appear. 
They  always  appear  when  they  leave  a  child  like 


220  Visions  and  Beliefs 

that.    And  surely  she  was  taken  to  nurse  the  faery 
children,  just  like  poor  Mrs.  Raynor  was  last  year. 

There's  a  well  near  Kinvara,  Tubbermacduagh 
it's  called,  and  it's  all  hung  with  rags,  and  piles  of 
seven  stones  about  it,  for  it's  a  great  place  to  bring 
children  to,  to  get  them  back  when  they've  been 
changed  by  the  faeries.  Nine  days  they  should 
be  going  to  it,  and  saying  prayers  each  day.  And 
you'll  see  the  child  that's  coming  back  will  be  like 
itself  one  day  and  like  an  old  person  another  day 
and  sometimes  it  will  feel  a  picking,  picking  at 
it  and  it  in  its  mother's  arms.  McCullagh's 
daughter  that  was  taken  is  often  to  be  seen  there. 


When  any  one  is  taken  something  is  put  in  their 
place — even  when  a  cow  or  the  like  goes.  There 
was  one  of  the  Simons  used  to  be  going  about  the 
country  skinning  cattle  and  killing  them,  even  for 
the  country  people  if  they  were  sick.  One  day 
he  was  skinning  a  cow  that  was  after  dying  by  the 
roadside,  and  another  man  with  him.  And  Simon 
said,  ''It's  a  pity  he  can't  sell  this  meat  to  some 
butcher,  he  might  get  something  for  it. "  But  the 
other  man  made  a  ring  of  his  fingers  like  this,  and 
looked  through  it  and  then  bade  Simon  to  look, 
and  what  he  saw  was  an  old  piper;  and  when  he 
thought  he  was  skinning  the  cow,  what  he  was 
doing  was  cutting  off  his  leather  breeches.  So  it's 
very  dangerous  to  eat  beef  you  buy  from  any  of 


Away  221 

those  sort  of  common  butchers.     You  don't  know 
what  might  have  been  put  in  its  place. 

A  Man  at  Corcomroe: 

There  was  Shane  Rua  that  was  away  every  night 
for  seven  years.  He  told  his  brother-in-law  that 
told  me  that  in  that  hill  behind  the  abbey  there 
is  the  most  splendid  town  that  was  ever  seen. 
Often  he  was  in  it,  and  ought  not  to  have  been  talk- 
ing about  it,  but  he  said  he  wouldn't  give  them  the 
satisfaction  of  it,  he  didn't  care  what  they  did  to 
him.  But  he  fainted  that  night  they  took  him 
from  the  wake,  and  you  know  what  a  strong 
man  Peter  Nestor  was,  and  he  couldn't  hold 
him. 

Buried  he  is  now  beside  that  wall. 

Cloran  the  plumber's  mother  was  taken  away, 
it's  always  said.  The  way  it's  known  is,  it  was  not 
long  after  her  baby  was  born  but  she  was  doing 
well.  And  one  morning  very  early  a  man  and  his 
wife  were  going  in  a  cart  to  Loughrea  one  Thursday 
for  the  market,  and  they  met  some  of  those  people 
and  they  asked  the  woman  that  had  her  own  child 
with  her,  would  she  give  a  drink  to  their  child  that 
was  with  them,  and  while  she  was  doing  it  they 
said,  "We  won't  be  in  want  of  a  nurse  tonight, 
we'll  have  Mrs.  Cloran  of  Cloon."  And  when 
they  got  back  in  the  evening,  Mrs.  Cloran  was  dead 
before  them. 

They  said  it  of  Glynn's  wife  last  year.     And 


222  Visions  and  Beliefs 

anyway,  her  mother  was  taken  in  the  same  way 
before  her. 

There  was  a  boy  I  know  lived  between  our  house 
and  Clough,  and  his  hand  was  lame  all  his  life  from  a 
burn  he  got  when  he  was  a  child.  And  one  even- 
ing in  winter  he  walked  out  of  the  house  and  was 
never  heard  of  or  seen  again,  or  any  account  of 
him.  And  it  was  not  the  time  of  year  to  go  look  for 
work,  and  anyway,  he  could  never  make  a  living 
with  his  lame  hand. 

Mrs.  Casey: 

My  sister  told  me  that  near  Tyrone  or  Clough- 
ballymore  there  was  a  man  walking  home  one 
night  late,  and  he  had  to  pass  by  a  smith's  forge 
where  one  Kinealy  used  to  work.  And  when  he 
came  near,  he  heard  the  noise  of  the  anvil,  and  he 
wondered  Kinealy  would  be  working  so  late  in  the 
night.  But  when  he  went  in  he  saw  that  they  were 
strange  men  that  were  in  it.  So  he  asked  them 
the  time,  and  they  told  him,  and  he  said,  "I  won't 
be  home  this  long  time  yet."  And  one  of  the  men 
said,  "  You'll  be  home  sooner  than  what  you  think." 
And  another  said,  "There's  a  man  on  a  grey  horse 
gone  the  road,  you'll  get  a  lift  from  him."  And  he 
wondered  that  they'd  know  the  road  he  was  going 
to  his  home.  But  sure  enough  as  he  was  walking 
he  came  up  with  a  man  on  a  grey  horse,  and  he  gave 
him  a  lift.  But  when  he  got  home  his  wife  saw 
that  he  looked  strange-like,  and  she  asked  what 


Away  223 

ailed  him,  and  he  told  her  all  that  happened. 
And  when  she  looked  at  him  she  saw  that  he  was 
taken.  So  he  went  into  the  bed,  and  the  next 
evening  he  was  dead.  And  all  the  people  that 
came  in  knew  by  the  appearance  of  the  corpse  that 
it  was  an  old  man  had  been  put  in  his  place,  and 
that  he  was  taken  when  he  got  on  the  grey  horse. 
For  there's  something  not  right  about  a  grey  horse 
or  a  white  horse,  or  about  a  red-haired  woman. 

There  was  a  girl  buried  in  Kilisheen,  one  of  the 
Shaws,  and  when  she  was  laid  out  on  the  bed  a 
woman  that  went  in  to  look  at  her  saw  that  she 
opened  her  eyes,  and  made  a  sort  of  a  face  at  her. 
But  she  said  nothing,  but  sat  down  by  the  hearth. 
But  another  woman  came  in  after  that  and  the 
same  thing  happened,  and  she  told  the  mother,  and 
she  began  to  cry  and  to  roar  that  they'd  say  such  a 
thing  of  her  poor  little  girl.  But  it  wasn't  the  little 
girl  that  was  in  it  at  all  but  some  old  person. 
And  the  man  that  nailed  down  the  coffin  left  the 
nails  loose,  and  when  they  came  to  Kilisheen 
churchyard  he  looked  in,  and  not  one  thing  was 
inside  it  but  the  sheet  and  a  bundle  of  shavings. 

There  was  a  man  lived  beyond  on  the  Kinvara 
road,  and  his  child  died  and  he  buried  it.  But  he 
was  passing  the  place  after,  and  he  asked  a  light 
for  his  pipe  in  some  house,  and  after  lighting  it  he 
threw  the  sod,  and  it  glowing,  just  where  he  buried 
the  child,  and  what  do  you  think  but  it  came  back 


224  Visions  and  Beliefs 

to  him  again,  and  he  brought  it  to  its  mother. 
For  they  can't  bear  fire. 

There  was  a  tailor  working  in  a  house  one  time, 
and  the  woman  of  the  house  was  near  wore  out 
with  a  baby  that  was  always  petting  and  crying 
for  the  breast-milk  and  never  quiet,  and  he  as  thin 
as  the  tongs.  Well,  one  day  she  made  a  big  fire, 
and  went  out  for  a  can  of  water  to  put  in  the  pot. 
And  the  tailor  had  taken  notice  of  the  child  and 
knew  he  was  a  lad.  So  no  sooner  was  the  woman 
gone  than  he  took  hold  of  him  and  said,  "I  know 
well  what  you  are,  and  I'll  put  you  at  the  back  of 
the  fire  unless  you'll  give  me  a  tune."  So  when 
he  felt  the  fire  he  said  he  would;  and  where  did  he 
bring  his  bagpipes  from  but  down  from  the  rafters, 
and  played  them  till  the  woman  came  back  again. 
So  when  she  had  the  fire  well  settled  up  round  the 
pot,  he  told  her  what  the  child  was  that  had  her 
wore  out  screeching  for  the  breast.  And  he  made 
as  though  to  put  him  on  the  fire.  And  with  that 
it  made  one  leap  and  was  out  of  the  door,  and 
brought  the  bagpipes  with  it  and  was  never  seen 
again.  Aren't  they  the  schemers  now  to  do  such 
things  as  that? 

Honor  Whelan: 

There  is  a  boy  now  of  the  Egans,  but  I  wouldn't 
for  the  world  let  them  think  I  spoke  of  him,  but  it's 
two  years  since  he  came  from  America.  And  since 
that  time  he  never  went  to  Mass  or  to  church  or  to 


Away  225 

market  or  to  stand  on  the  cross-roads  or  to  the 
hurling  or  to  nothing.  And  if  any  one  comes  into 
the  house,  it's  into  the  room  he'll  slip  not  to  see 
them.  And  as  to  work,  he  has  the  garden  dug  to 
bits,  and  the  whole  place  smeared  with  cow-dung, 
and  such  a  crop  as  was  never  seen,  and  the  alders 
all  plaited  that  they  look  grand. 

One  day  he  went  as  far  as  Castle  Daly  church, 
but  as  soon  as  he  got  to  the  door  he  turned  straight 
round  again  as  if  he  hadn't  power  to  pass  it.  I 
wonder  he  wouldn't  get  the  priest  to  read  a  Mass 
for  him  or  some  such  thing.  But  the  crop  he  has 
is  grand,  and  you  may  know  well  that  he  has  some 
that  help  him. 

There  was  a  boy  in  the  bed  for  seven  years, 
and  when  the  seven  years  were  at  an  end  there 
was  a  tailor  working  in  the  house,  and  he  kept  his 
eye  on  him,  and  sat  working  where  he  could  see 
into  the  room.  And  so  all  of  a  sudden  he  got  up, 
and  walked  out  into  the  kitchen  and  called  to  his 
mother  for  his  breeches.  For  it  was  himself 
come  back  again. 

There  was  a  man  used  to  disappear  every  night, 
and  no  one  knew  where  he  went.  But  one  morning 
a  boy  that  was  up  saw  him  on  the  side  of  the 
mountain  beyond,  putting  on  his  boots.  So  then 
it  was  known  he  had  been  at  these  hurlings. 

There  was  a  sister  of  my  own  went  away  among 

VOL.  I — 15 


226  Visions  and  Beliefs 

them  in  a  trance.     She  went  to  America  after, 
but  didn't  live  long. 

Mrs.  Hayden  of  Slieve  Echtge: 

There  was  a  woman  one  time  travelling  here 
with  my  sister  from  Loughrea,  and  she  had  her 
child  in  the  cart  with  her.  And  as  they  went  along 
the  road,  a  man  came  out  of  a  sort  of  a  hollow 
with  bushes  beside  the  road,  and  he  asked  the 
woman  to  come  along  with  him  for  a  minute. 
And  she  reddened,  but  my  sister  bid  her  go,  and 
so  she  went.  And  the  man  brought  her  into  a 
house,  and  there  lying  on  a  bed  was  a  baby,  and 
she  understood  she  was  to  give  suck  to  it  and  so 
she  did,  and  came  away;  and  when  she  was  away 
out,  she  saw  that  the  man  that  brought  her  was 
her  brother  that  was  dead,  and  that  is  the  reason 
she  was  chosen. 

There  was  another  woman,  my  husband  knew 
her,  was  taken  and  an  old  hag  put  in  her  place, 
that  keeps  to  her  bed  all  the  time.  And  when  the 
seven  years  were  at  an  end,  she  got  restless  like, 
for  they  must  change  every  seven  years. 

So  she  told  the  husband  the  way  he  should 
redeem  his  wife,  and  where  he'd  see  her  with  the 
riders  if  he'd  go  out  to  some  place  at  night.  And 
so  he  did,  and  threw  what  he  had  at  her  and  she 
sitting  on  a  horse  behind  a  young  man.  And  when 
they  came  home,  the  old  hag  was  gone.  She  said 
the  young  man  was  very  kind  to  her  and  had  never 
done  anything  to  offend  her.     And  she  had  two 


Away  227 

or  three  children  and  left  them  behind.  But  for 
all  that  she  was  glad  to  come  back  to  her  own 
house.  When  children  are  left  like  that,  the 
mother  being  brought  back  again,  it's  then  they 
want  a  nurse  for  them,  to  give  them  milk  and  to 
attend  them. 

I  know  a  man  was  away  among  them.  Every 
night  he  would  be  taken  and  his  wife  got  used  to  it 
after  some  time;  at  first  she  didn't  like  him  to  be 
taken  out  of  the  bed  beside  her.  And  in  harvest, 
to  see  that  man  reap — he'd  reap  three  times  as 
much  as  any  other  help  he  had — of  course  that's 
well  known. 

One  Dempsey: 

There  was  a  girl  at  Inniskill  in  the  east  of  the 
country,  of  the  same  name  as  my  own,  was  lying 
on  a  mat  for  eight  years.  When  she  first  got  the 
touch  the  mother  was  sick,  and  there  was  no  room 
in  the  bed,  so  they  laid  a  mat  on  the  floor  for  her, 
and  she  never  left  it  for  the  eight  years;  but  the 
mother  died  soon  after. 

She  never  got  off  the  mat  for  any  one  to  see. 
But  one  night  there  was  a  working-man  came  to 
the  house,  and  they  gave  him  lodging  for  the 
night,  and  he  watched  from  the  other  room,  and  in 
the  night  he  saw  the  outer  door  open,  and  three 
or  four  boys  come  in,  and  a  piper  with  them  or  a 
fiddler — I'm  not  sure  which — and  he  played  to 
them  and  they  danced,  and  the  girl  got  up  off  the 


228  Visions  and  Beliefs 

mat  and  joined  them.  And  in  the  morning  when 
he  was  sitting  at  breakfast  he  looked  over  to  her 
where  she  was  lying  and  said,  "You  were  the  best 
dancer  among  them  last  night." 

There  was  a  priest  came  when  she  had  been 
about  two  years  lying  there  and  said  something 
should  be  done  for  her,  and  he  came  to  the  house 
and  read  Masses,  and  then  he  took  her  by  the 
hand  and  bid  her  stand  up.  But  she  snatched  the 
hand  away  and  said,  "Get  away  you  devil."  At 
last  Father  Lahifl  came  to  Inniskill,  and  he  came 
and  whatever  he  did,  he  drove  away  what  was 
there,  and  brought  the  girl  back  again,  and  since 
then  she  walks  and  does  the  work  of  the  house  as 
well  as  another.  And  Father  Lahiff  said  in  the 
Chapel  it  was  a  shame  for  no  priest  to  have  done 
that  for  her  before. 

(Later.) 

Sibby  Dempsey  of  my  own  name  that  lives  in  the 
next  house  to  me  is  away  still.  Every  time  I  go 
back  she  can  tell  me  if  anything  happened  me,  and 
where  I  was  or  what  I  did.  And  more  than  that, 
she  can  tell  the  future  and  what  will  happen  you. 
But  there's  not  many  like  to  go  to  her,  for  the 
priest  is  against  her,  and  if  he'd  hear  you  went  to 
her  house  he'd  be  speaking  against  you  at  the  altar 
on  Sundays.  But  she  has  a  good  many  cured. 
Some  she  cured  that  were  going  to  be  brought  to 
the  asylum  in  Ballinasloe.  By  charms  she  does  it, 
wherever  she  gathers  herbs,  she  that  never  left  the 


Away  229 

bed  these  ten  years.  Twenty  years  she  was  when 
she  got  the  touch,  and  it's  on  her  ten  years 
now. 

There  was  a  woman  had  a  little  girl,  and  her  side 
got  paralysed  that  she  couldn't  stir,  and  she  went  to 
the  priest,  Father  Dwyer — he's  dead  since.  For  the 
priests  can  do  all  cures,  but  they  wouldn't  like  to 
be  doing  them,  to  bring  themselves  into  danger. 
And  she  asked  him  to  do  a  cure  on  the  little  girl, 
but  what  he  said  was,  "Do  you  ask  me  to  take 
God's  own  mercy  from  Himself?"  So  when  she 
heard  that,  she  went  away,  and  she  went  to  Sibby 
Dempsey.  And  she  is  the  best  writer  that  ever 
you  saw,  and  she  got  a  pen  and  wrote  some  words 
on  a  bit  of  paper,  and  gave  them  to  the  old  woman 
to  put  on  the  little  girl's  arm,  and  so  she  did,  and 
on  the  moment  she  was  cured. 

We  don't  talk  much  to  her  now,  we  don't  care 
to  meddle  much  with  those  that  have  been  brought 
back,  so  we  keep  out  of  her  way.  She'll  most  likely 
go  to  America. 

To  bring  any  one  back  from  being  in  the  faeries 
you  should  get  the  leaves  of  the  lus-mor  and  give 
them  to  him  to  drink.  And  if  he  only  got  a  little 
touch  from  them  and  had  some  complaint  in  him 
at  the  same  time,  that  makes  him  sick-like,  that 
will  bring  him  back.  But  if  he  is  altogether  in 
the  faeries,  then  it  won't  bring  him  back,  for  he'll 
know  what  it  is  and  he'll  refuse  to  drink  it. 

In  a  trance  the  soul  goes  from  the  body,  but  to 


230  Visions  and  Beliefs 

be  among  the  Sheogue  the  body  is  taken  and  some- 
thing left  in  its  place. 

{Later.) 

That  girl  I  was  telling  you  about  in  my  own 
village,  Sibby  Dempsey,  I  had  a  letter  about  her  the 
other  day  when  I  was  in  Cashel,  and  she  that  had 
been  in  her  bed  seventeen  years  is  walking  out  and 
going  to  Mass,  a  nice  respectable  woman.  They 
told  me  no  more  than  that  in  the  letter,  but  Tom 
Carden  the  policeman  that  had  been  there  for  his 
holiday  told  that  there  had  come  a  wandering 
woman — one  of  her  own  sort,  it's  likely — to  the 
house  one  night,  and  asked  a  lodging  in  the  name 
of  God.  Sibby  called  out,  and  asked  Maggie,  the 
girl,  who  was  that?  And  the  woman  stopped  the 
night,  and  whatever  they  did  was  between  them- 
selves, and  in  the  morning  the  wandering  woman 
went  away,  and  Sibby  got  up  out  of  the  bed,  that 
she  never  had  left  for  seventeen  years.  Now  she 
never  was  there  all  that  time  in  my  belief,  for  if 
it  was  an  oak  stick  was  lying  there  through  all 
those  years  wouldn't  it  be  rotten?  It  is  in  the 
faeries  she  was,  and  it  not  herself  used  to  be  in  it 
in  the  night-time.    {Note  43.) 

{Later.)  Sibby  Dempsey  is  getting  ready  now 
for  her  wedding.  She  is  all  right  now ;  she  has  gone 
through  her  years. 

But  what  do  you  say  to  what  happened  her 
father  shortly  after  she  being  brought  back?     His 


Away  231 

horse  fell  with  him  coming  home  one  evening  and 
both  his  legs  were  broke,  and  the  horse  was  killed. 
That  is  the  revenge  they  took  for  the  girl  being 
taken  away  from  them. 

One  Lanigan: 

My  own  mother  was  away  for  twenty-one  years, 
and  at  the  end  of  every  seven  years  she  thought  it 
would  be  off  her,  but  she  never  could  leave  the  bed. 
She  could  not  sit  up  and  make  a  little  shirt  or  such 
a  thing  for  us.     It  was  of  the  fever  she  died  at  last. 

The  way  she  got  the  touch  was  one  day  after 
we  left  the  place  we  used  to  be  in.  And  we  got  our 
choice  place  in  the  estate,  and  my  father  chose 
Cahirbohil,  but  a  great  number  of  the  neighbours 
went  to  Moneen.  And  one  day  a  woman  that 
had  been  our  neighbour  came  over  from  Moneen, 
and  my  mother  showed  her  everything  and  told 
her  of  her  way  of  living.  And  she  walked  a  bit  of 
the  way  with  her,  and  when  they  were  parting 
the  woman  said,  "  You'll  soon  be  the  same  as  such 
a  one,"  and  as  she  turned  away  she  felt  a  pain  in 
her  hand.  And  from  that  day  she  lost  her  health. 
My  father  went  to  Biddy  Early,  but  she  said  it  was 
too  late,  she  could  do  nothing,  but  she  would  take 
nothing  from  him. 

There  was  a  man  out  at  Roxborough,  Colevin 
was  his  name,  was  known  to  be  away  with  them. 
And  one  day  there  were  a  lot  of  the  people  footing 
turf,  and  a  blast  of  wind  came  and  passed  by. 


232  Visions  and  Beliefs 

And  after  it  passed  a  joking  fellow  that  was  among 
them  called  out,  "Is  Colevin  with  you ? ' '  And  the 
blast  turned  and  knocked  an  eye  out  of  him,  that 
he  never  had  the  sight  of  it  again. 

/.  Joyce: 

There  was  a  little  chap  I  used  to  go  to  school 
with  was  away.  He  was  in  bed  for  three  or  four 
years,  and  then  he  could  only  walk  on  two  sticks, 
till  one  day  his  father  was  going  into  Clough  and 
he  wanted  to  go,  and  the  father  said,  "They'll  be 
laughing  at  you  going  on  your  two  sticks."  So 
then  he  said,  "Well,  I'll  go  on  one, "  and  threw  one 
away  and  after  that  he  got  rid  of  the  other  as 
well — and  got  all  right.  He  never  would  tell  any- 
thing about  where  he  was,  but  if  any  one  asked 
him  he'd  begin  to  cry.  He  was  very  smart  at  his 
books,  and  very  handy,  so  that  when  he  got  well  he 
got  a  good  offer  of  work  and  went  to  America. 

An  Islander: 

There  was  a  girl  on  the  middle  island  used  to  be 
away  every  night,  and  they  never  missed  her,  for 
there  was  something  left  in  her  place,  but  she  got 
thin  in  the  face  and  wasted  away.  She  told  the 
priest  at  last,  and  he  bid  her  go  and  live  in  some 
other  place,  and  she  went  to  America,  and  there 
she  is  still.  And  she  told  them  after,  it  was  a  com- 
rade she  had  among  them  used  to  call  her  and  to 
bring  her  about  to  every  place,  and  that  if  she 
took  a  bit  of  potato  off  the  skib  in  the  house,  it 


Away  233 

might  be  on  Black  Head  she'd  be  eating  it.  And 
to  parties  the  other  girl  would  bring  her,  and  she'd 
be  sitting  on  her  lap  at  them. 

But  those  that  are  brought  away  would  be  glad 
to  be  back.  It's  a  poor  thing  to  go  there  after  this 
life.  Heaven  is  the  best  place,  Heaven  and  this 
world  we're  in  now. 

A  Man  whose  Son  is  Said  to  be  Away: 
I  don't  know  what's  wrong  with  my  son  unless 
that  he's  a  real  regular  Pagan.  He  lies  in  the  bed 
the  most  of  the  day  and  he  won't  go  out  till  even- 
ing and  he  won't  go  to  Mass.  And  he  has  a  mem- 
ory for  everything  he  ever  heard  or  read.  I  never 
knew  the  like.  Most  people  forget  what  they  read 
in  a  book  within  one  year  after. 

A  Travelling  Man: 

A  man  I  met  in  America  told  me  that  one  time 
before  they  left  this  country  they  were  working  in 
a  field.  And  in  the  next  field  but  one  they  saw  a 
little  funeral,  a  very  little  one,  and  it  passed  into 
a  forth.  And  there  was  a  child  sick  in  the  house 
near  by;  and  that  evening  she  died.  But  they 
had  her  taken  away  in  the  daytime. 

Mr.  Feeney: 

It's  a  saying  that  the  Sheogue  take  away  the 
blackberries  in  the  month  of  November;  anyway 
we  know  that  when  the  potatoes  are  taken  it's 


234  Visions  and  Beliefs 

by  the  gentry,  and  surely  this  year  they  have  put 
their  fancy  on  them. 

I  know  the  brothers  of  a  man  that  was  away  for 
seven  years,  and  he  was  none  the  better  for  it  and 
had  no  riches  after.  It  was  in  that  place  beyond 
— where  you'd  see  nothing  but  hills  and  hollows — 
but  when  he  was  brought  in,  he  saw  what  was  like 
a  gentleman's  avenue,  and  it  leading  to  a  grand 
house.  He  didn't  mind  being  among  them,  when 
once  he  got  used  to  it  and  was  one  of  the  force.  Of 
course  they  wouldn't  like  you  to  touch  a  bush  that 
would  belong  to  them.  They  might  want  it  for 
shelter;  or  it  might  only  be  because  it  belongs  to 
them  that  they  wouldn't  like  it  touched. 

There  was  one  of  the  Readys,  John,  was  away 
for  seven  years  lying  in  the  bed,  but  brought  away 
at  nights.  And  he  knew  everything.  And  one 
Kearney  up  in  the  mountains,  a  cousin  of  his  own, 
lost  two  hoggets  and  came  and  told  him.  And  he 
saw  the  very  spot  where  they  were  and  bid  him  to 
bring  them  back  again.  But  they  were  vexed  at 
that  and  took  away  the  power,  so  that  he  never 
knew  anything  again,  no  more  than  another. 

Surely  I  believe  that  any  woman  taken  in  child- 
birth is  taken  among  them.  For  I  knew  of  a 
woman  that  died  some  years  ago  and  left  her  young 
child.  And  the  woman  that  was  put  to  look  after 
it  neglected  it.  And  one  night  the  two  doors  were 
blown  open,  and  a  blast  of  wind  came  in  and 


Away  235 

struck  her,  and  she  never  was  the  better  of  it 
after. 

A  Herd: 

There  was  a  house  I  stopped  in  one  night  near 
Tallaght  where  I  was  going  for  a  fair,  and  there  was 
a  sick  girl  in  the  house,  and  she  lying  in  a  corner 
near  the  fire. 

And  some  time  after,  I  was  told  that  no  one 
could  do  anything  for  her,  but  that  one  evening  a 
labouring  man  that  was  passing  came  in  and  asked 
a  night's  lodging.  And  he  was  sitting  by  the  fire 
on  a  stool  and  the  girl  behind  him. 

And  every  now  and  again  when  no  one  was  look- 
ing he'd  take  a  coal  of  fire  and  throw  it  under  the 
stool  on  to  where  she  was  lying  till  he  had  her 
tormented.  And  in  the  morning  there  was  the  girl 
lying,  and  her  face  all  torn  and  scarred.  And  he 
said,  "It's  not  you  that  was  in  it  these  last  few 
months."  And  she  said,  "No,  but  I  wouldn't  be 
in  it  now  but  for  you.  And  see  how  the  old  hag 
that  was  in  it  treated  me,  she  was  so  mad  with  the 
treatment  that  you  gave  her  last  night." 

There  was  one  Cronan  on  the  road  to  Galway, 
I  knew  him  well,  was  away  with  them  seven  years. 
It  was  at  night  he  used  to  be  brought  away,  and 
when  they  called  him,  go  he  should.  They'd 
leave  some  sort  of  a  likeness  of  him  in  his  place. 
He  had  a  wart  on  his  back,  and  his  wife  would  rub 
her  hand  down  to  feel  was  the  wart  there,  before 


236  Visions  and  Beliefs 

she'd  know  was  it  himself  was  in  it  or  not.  He 
told  some  of  the  way  he  used  to  be  brought  riding 
about  at  night,  and  that  he  was  often  in  that  castle 
below  at  Ballinamantane.  And  he  saw  then  a 
great  many  of  his  friends  that  were  dead. 

And  Mrs.  Kelly  asked  him  did  ever  he  see  her 
son  Jimmy  that  died  amongst  them.  And  he  told 
her  he  did,  and  that  mostly  all  the  people  that  he 
knew,  that  had  died  out  of  the  village,  were 
amongst  them  now. 

Himself  and  his  pony  would  go  up  to  the  sky. 

And  if  his  wife  had  a  clutch  of  geese,  they'd  be 
ten  times  better  than  any  other  ones,  and  the  wheat 
and  the  stock  and  all  they  had  was  better  and  more 
plentiful  than  what  any  one  else  had.  Help  he 
got  from  them  of  course.  And  at  last  the  wife  got 
the  priest  in  to  read  a  Mass  and  to  take  it  off  him. 
But  after  that  all  that  they  had  went  to  flitters. 

A  Hillside  Woman: 

Surely  there  are  many  taken ;  my  own  sister  that 
lived  in  the  house  beyond,  and  her  husband  and 
her  three  children,  all  in  one  year.  Strong  they 
were  and  handsome  and  good — the  best — and 
that's  the  sort  that  are  taken.  They  got  in  the 
priest  when  first  it  came  on  the  husband,  and  soon 
after  a  fine  cow  died  and  a  calf.  But  he  didn't 
begrudge  that  if  he'd  get  his  health,  but  it  didn't 
save  him  after.  Sure  Father  Andrews  in  Kilbren- 
nan  said  not  long  ago  in  the  chapel  that  no  one 
had  gone  to  heaven  for  the  last  ten  years. 


Away  237 

But  whatever  life  God  has  granted  them,  when 
it's  at  an  end  go  they  must,  whether  they're 
among  them  or  not.  And  they'd  sooner  be  among 
them  than  to  go  to  Purgatory. 

There  was  a  little  one  of  my  own  taken.  Till  he 
was  a  year  old  he  was  the  stoutest  and  the  best  and 
the  finest  of  all  my  children,  and  then  he  began  to 
pine  till  he  wasn't  thicker  than  that  straw;  but 
he  lived  for  about  four  years. 

How  did  it  come  on  him?  I  know  that  well. 
He  was  the  grandest  ever  you  saw,  and  I  proud  of 
him,  and  I  brought  him  to  a  ball  in  this  house  and 
he  was  able  to  drink  punch.  And  I  was  stopped 
one  day  at  a  house  beyond,  and  a  neighbouring 
woman  came  in  with  her  child  and  she  says,  "If 
he's  not  the  stoutest  he's  the  longest,"  and  she 
took  off  her  apron  and  the  string  to  measure  them 
both.  I  had  no  right  to  let  her  do  that  but  I 
thought  no  harm  at  the  time.  But  it  was  from 
that  night  he  began  to  screech  and  from  that  time 
he  did  no  good.  He'd  get  stronger  through  the 
winter,  and  about  the  Pentecost,  in  the  month  of 
May,  he'd  always  fall  back  again,  for  that's  the 
time  they're  at  the  worst. 

I  didn't  have  the  priest  in.  It  does  them  no 
good,  but  harm,  to  have  a  priest  take  notice  of 
them  when  they're  like  that. 

It  was  in  the  month  of  May  at  the  Pentecost  he 
went  at  last.  He  was  always  pining,  but  I  didn't 
think  he'd  go  so  soon.  At  the  end  of  the  bed  he 
was  lying  with  the  others,  and  he  called  to  me  and 


238  Visions  and  Beliefs 

put  up  his  arms.  But  I  didn't  want  to  take  too 
much  notice  of  him  or  to  have  him  always  after 
me,  so  I  only  put  down  my  foot  to  where  he  was. 
And  he  began  to  pick  straws  out  of  the  bed  and  to 
throw  them  over  the  little  sister  beside  him,  till 
he  had  thrown  as  much  as  would  thatch  a  goose. 
And  when  I  got  up,  there  he  was  dead,  and  the 
little  sister  asleep  beside  him  all  covered  with 
straws. 

Mrs.  Madden: 

There  were  three  women  living  at  Ballinakill 
— Mary  Grady,  the  mother,  and  Mary  Flanagan 
the  daughter,  and  Ellen  Lydon  that  was  a  by- 
child  of  her's;  and  they  had  a  little  dog  called 
Floss  that  was  like  a  child  to  them.  And  the 
grandmother  went  first  and  then  the  little  dog, 
and  then  Mary  Flanagan  within  a  half  year.  And 
there  was  a  boy  wanted  to  marry  Ellen  Lydon 
that  was  left  alone.  But  his  father  and  mother 
wouldn't  have  her,  because  of  her  being  a  by-child. 
And  the  priest  wouldn't  marry  them  not  to  give 
offence.  So  it  wasn't  long  before  she  was  taken 
too,  and  those  that  saw  her  after  death  knew  that 
it  was  the  mother  that  was  there  in  place  of  her. 
And  when  the  priest  was  called  the  day  before  she 
died  he  said,  "She's  gone  since  twelve  o'clock'this 
morning,  and  she'll  die  between  the  two  Masses 
tomorrow, "  for  it  was  Father  Hubert,  •  that  had 
understanding  of  these  things.  And  so  she 
did. 


Away  239 

There  was  a  man  had  a  son,  and  he  was  lying  in 
the  bed  a  long  time.  And  one  day,  the  day  of  the 
races,  he  asked  the  father  and  mother  were  they 
going  to  them,  and  they  said  they  were  not. 
"Well,"  says  he,  "I'll  show  you  as  good  sport  as 
if  you  went." 

And  he  had  a  dog,  and  he  called  to  it  and  said 
something  to  it,  and  it  began  to  make  a  run  and  to 
gallop  and  to  jump  backwards  and  forwards  over 
the  half-door,  for  there  was  a  very  high  half-door 
to  the  house.  "So  now,"  says  he,  "didn't  you 
see  as  good  sport  as  if  you  were  in  the  Newtown 
race-course?" 


There  was  my  own  uncle  that  lived  where  the 
shoemaker's  shop  is  now,  and  two  of  his  children 
were  brought  away  from  him.  And  the  third  he 
was  determined  he'd  keep,  and  he  put  it  to  sleep 
between  the  wife  and  himself  in  the  bed.  And  one 
night  a  hand  came  at  the  window  and  tried  to  take 
the  child,  and  he  knew  who  the  hand  belonged  to, 
and  he  saw  it  was  a  woman  of  the  village  that  was 
dead.  So  he  drove  her  away  and  held  the  child, 
and  he  was  never  troubled  again  after  that. 


H.  Henty: 

There  was  an  old  man  on  the  road  one  night  near 
Burren  and  he  heard  a  cry  in  the  air  over  his  head, 
the  cry  of  a  child  that  was  being  carried  away. 


240  Visions  and  Beliefs 

And  he  called  out  some  words  and  the  child  was 
let  down  into  his  arms  and  he  brought  it  home. 
And  when  he  got  there  he  was  told  that  it  was  dead. 
So  he  brought  in  the  live  child,  and  you  may  be 
sure  that  it  was  some  sort  of  a  thing  that  was  good 
for  nothing  that  was  put  in  its  place. 

It's  the  good  and  the  handsome  they  take,  and 
those  that  are  of  use,  or  whose  name  is  up  for  some 
good  action.  Idlers  they  don't  like,  but  who  would 
like  idlers? 

There  is  a  forth  away  in  County  Clare,  and 
they  say  it's  so  long  that  it  has  no  end.  And 
there  was  a  pensioner,  one  Gavornan,  came  back 
from  the  army,  and  a  soldier  has  more  courage 
than  another,  and  he  said  he'd  go  try  what  was  in 
it,  and  he  got  two  other  men  to  go  with  him,  and 
they  went  a  long,  long  way,  and  saw  nothing. 
And  then  they  came  to  where  there  was  the  sound 
of  a  woman  beetling.  And  then  they  began  to 
meet  people  they  knew  before,  that  had  died  out 
of  the  village,  and  they  all  told  them  to  go  back, 
but  still  they  went  on. 

And  then  they  met  the  parish  priest  of  Bally- 
vaughan,  Father  Cregan  that  was  dead.  And  he 
told  them  to  go  back  and  so  they  turned  and 
went.  They  were  just  beginning  to  come  to  the 
grandeur  when  they  were  turned  away.  Those 
that  are  brought  away  among  them  never  come 
back,  or  if  they  do  they're  not  the  same  as  they 
were  before. 


Away  241 

Honor  Whelan: 

There  was  a  woman  beyond  at  Ardrahan  died, 
and  she  came  back  one  night  and  her  husband 
saw  her  at  the  dresser,  looking  for  something  to 
eat.  And  she  slipped  away  from  him  that  time, 
but  the  next  time  she  came  he  got  hold  of  her,  and 
she  bid  him  come  for  her  to  the  fair  at  some  place, 
and  watch  for  her  at  the  Customs'  gap  and  she'd 
be  on  the  last  horse  that  would  pass  through. 
And  then  she  said,  "It's  best  for  you  not  come 
yourself  but  send  your  brother."  So  the  brother 
came  and  she  dropped  down  to  him  and  he  brought 
her  to  his  house.  But  in  a  week  after  he  was  dead 
and  buried.  And  she  lived  a  long  time,  and  never 
would  speak  three  words  to  any  one  that  would 
come  into  the  house,  but  working,  working  all  the 
day.  I  wouldn't  have  liked  to  live  in  the  house 
with  her  after  her  being  away  like  that.  I  don't 
think  the  old  go  among  them  when  they  die,  but 
believe  me,  it's  not  many  of  the  young  they  spare, 
but  bring  them  away  till  such  time  as  God  sends 
for  them.  It's  about  fourteen  years  since  so  many 
young  women  were  brought  away  after  their  child 
being  born — Peter  Roche's  wife,  and  James  Shan- 
nan's  wife,  and  Clancy's  wife  of  Lisdaragh — hun- 
dreds were  carried  off  in  that  year — they  didn't 
bring  so  many  since  then.  I  suppose  they  brought 
enough  then  to  last  them  a  good  time. 

All  go  among  them  when  they  die  except  the 
old  people.  And  it's  better  to  be  there  than  in 
the  pains  of  Purgatory.     As  to  Purgatory,  I  don't 

VOL.   I — 16 


242  Visions  and  Beliefs 

think  it  is  after  being  with  them  we  have  to  go 
there.  But  I  know  we're  told  to  give  some  cloth- 
ing to  the  poor,  and  it  will  be  thrown  down  after- 
wards to  quench  the  flames  for  us. 

A  Policeman's  Wife: 

There  was  a  girl  in  County  Clare  was  away, 
and  the  mother  used  to  hear  horses  coming  about 
the  door  every  night.  And  one  day  the  mother 
was  picking  flax  in  the  house,  and  of  a  sudden  there 
came  in  her  hand  an  herb  with  the  best  smell  and 
the  sweetest  that  ever  was  smelt  (Note  44).  And 
she  closed  it  with  her  hand,  and  called  to  the  son 
that  was  making  up  a  stack  of  hay  outside  "Come 
in,  Denis,  for  I  have  the  best  smelling  herb  that  ever 
you  saw. "  And  when  he  came  in  she  opened  her 
hand,  and  the  herb  was  gone  clear  and  clean.  She 
got  annoyed  at  last  with  the  horses  coming  about 
the  door,  and  some  told  her  to  gather  all  the  fire 
into  the  middle  of  the  floor  and  to  lay  the  little 
girl  upon  it,  and  to  see  could  she  come  back  again. 
So  she  did  as  she  was  told,  and  brought  the  little 
girl  out  of  the  bed  and  laid  her  on  the  coals.  And 
she  began  to  scream  and  to  call  out,  and  the  neigh- 
bours came  running  in,  and  the  police  heard  of 
it,  and  they  came  and  arrested  the  mother  and 
brought  her  to  the  Court-house  before  the  magis- 
trate, Mr.  Mac  Walter,  and  my  own  husband  was 
one  of  the  police  that  arrested  her.  And  when  the 
magistrate  heard  all,  he  said  she  was  an  ignorant 
woman,  and  that  she  did  what  she  thought  right, 


Away  243 

and  he  would  give  her  no  punishment.  And  the 
girl  got  well  and  was  married.  It  was  after  she 
was  married  I  knew  her. 

An  Old  Woman  at  Chiswick: 

There  was  a  woman  went  to  live  in  a  house 
where  the  faeries  were  known  to  be  very  much 
about.  And  the  first  day  she  was  there  one  of 
them  came  in  and  asked  her  for  the  loan  of  a  pot, 
and  she  gave  it.  And  the  next  day  she  came  in 
again  and  asked  for  the  loan  of  some  meal,  and 
when  she  got  it  the  woman  said,  ' '  I  hope  you'll  find 
it  to  be  fine  enough."  "It  is,"  she  said,  "and  to 
show  you  I  think  it  fine  and  good,  I'll  mix  it  here 
and  boil  the  stirabout  and  we'll  eat  it  together." 
And  so  they  did.  And  she  said  "We'll  always  be 
your  friends ;  and  what  you  may  miss  in  the  morn- 
ing, never  grudge  it,  for  you'll  have  more  than 
what  you  lost  before  night."  And  her  tribe  was 
going  away,  and  when  she  was  going  out  the  door, 
she  made  a  hole  with  her  heel  in  the  stone,  and  she 
filled  it  up  with  mud  and  earth,  and  she  said  "If 
we  die  or  if  anything  happens  to  us,  blood  will 
come  in  this  hole  and  fill  it. " 

There  was  a  girl  used  to  be  away  with  them, 
you'd  never  know  when  it  was  she  herself  that  was 
in  it  or  not  till  she'd  come  back,  and  then  she'd 
tell  she  had  been  away.  She  didn't  like  to  go, 
but  she  had  to  go  when  they  called  to  her.  And 
she  told  her  mother  always  to  treat  kindly  whoever 


244  Visions  and  Beliefs 

was  put  in  her  place,  sometimes  one  would  be  put, 
and  sometimes  another,  for  she'd  say  "If  you  are 
unkind  to  whoever's  there,  they'll  be  unkind  to 

me." 

Three  of  my  uncles  were  taken  by  them,  young 
men;  some  sort  of  a  little  cold  they  got  between 
them,  and  there  wasn't  more  than  two  months 
before  the  first  of  them  going  and  the  last.  They 
were  seen  after  by  a  man  that  lived  in  the  house 
between  there  and  the  school,  and  that  used  often 
to  see  them,  and  to  bring  them  in  to  dinner  with 
him. 


WITCHES  AND  WIZARDS  AND  IRISH 
FOLK-LORE 


245 


WITCHES  AND  WIZARDS  AND  IRISH 
FOLK-LORE 


IRELAND  was  not  separated  from  general 
European  speculation  when  much  of  that  was 
concerned  with  the  supernatural.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke 
tells  in  his  unfinished  autobiography  how,  when  he 
was  at  school  in  Antrim  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  schoolfellow  told  him  of 
Cornelius  Agrippa's  book  on  Magic  and  that  it 
had  to  be  chained  or  it  would  fly  away  of  itself. 
Presently  he  heard  of  a  farmer  who  had  a  copy 
and  after  that  made  friends  with  a  wandering 
tinker  who  had  another.  Lady  Gregory  and  I 
spoke  of  a  friend's  visions  to  an  old  countryman. 
He  said  "he  must  belong  to  a  society";  and 
the  people  often  attribute  magical  powers  to 
Orangemen  and  to  Freemasons,  and  I  have 
heard  a  shepherd  at  Doneraile  speak  of  a  magic 
wand  with  Tetragramaton  Agla  written  upon 
it.  The  visions  and  speculations  of  Ireland  dif- 
fer much  from  those  of  England  and  France,  for 

247 


248  Visions  and  Beliefs 

in  Ireland,  as  in  Highland  Scotland,  we  are  never 
far  from  the  old  Celtic  mythology;  but  there 
is  more  likeness  than  difference.  Lady  Gregory's 
story  of  the  witch  who  in  semblance  of  a  hare, 
leads  the  hounds  such  a  dance,  is  the  best  remem- 
bered of  all  witch  stories.  It  is  told,  I  should 
imagine,  in  every  countryside  where  there  is 
even  a  fading  memory  of  witchcraft.  One  finds  it 
in  a  sworn  testimony  given  at  the  trial  of  Julian 
Cox,  an  old  woman  indicted  for  witchcraft  at 
Taunton  in  Somersetshire  in  1663  and  quoted  by 
Joseph  Glanvill.  "The  first  witness  was  a  hunts- 
man, who  swore  that  he  went  out  with  a  pack  of 
hounds  to  hunt  a  hare,  and  not  far  from  Julian 
Cox  her  house  he  at  last  started  a  hare:  the  dogs 
hunted  her  very  close,  and  the  third  ring  hunted 
her  in  view,  till  at  last  the  huntsman  perceiving 
the  hare  almost  spent  and  making  towards  a 
great  bush,  he  ran  on  the  other  side  of  the  bush  to 
take  her  up  and  preserve  her  from  the  dogs ;  but  as 
soon  as  he  laid  hands  on  her,  it  proved  to  be  Julian 
Cox,  who  had  her  head  grovelling  on  the  ground, 
and  her  globes  (as  he  expressed  it)  upward.  He 
knowing  her,  was  so  affrighted  that  his  hair  on  his 
head  stood  an  end;  and  yet  spake  to  her,  and  ask'd 
her  what  brought  her  there;  but  she  was  so  far  out 
of  breath  that  she  could  not  make  him  any  answer; 
his  dogs  also  came  up  full  cry  to  recover  the  game, 
and  smelled  at  her  and  so  left  off  hunting  any 
further.  And  the  huntsman  with  his  dogs  went 
home    presently    sadly    affrighted."    Dr.   Henry 


Witches  and  Wizards  249 

More,  the  Platonist,  who  considers  the  story  in 
a  letter  to  Glanvill,  explains  that  Julian  Cox 
was  not  turned  into  a  hare,  but  that  "  Ludicrous 
Daemons  exhibited  to  the  sight  of  this  huntsman 
and  his  dogs,  the  shape  of  a  hare,  one  of  them 
turning  himself  into  such  a  form,  another  hurry- 
ing on  the  body  of  Julian  near  the  same  place, " 
making  her  invisible  till  the  right  moment  had 
come.  "As  I  have  heard  of  some  painters  that 
have  drawn  the  sky  in  a  huge  landscape,  so  lively, 
that  the  birds  have  flown  against  it,  thinking  it 
free  air,  and  so  have  fallen  down.  And  if  painters 
and  jugglers,  by  the  tricks  of  legerdemain  can  do 
such  strange  feats  to  the  deceiving  of  the  sight,  it  is 
no  wonder  that  these  aerie  invisible  spirits  have  far 
surpassed  them  in  all  such  prestigious  doings,  as 
the  air  surpasses  the  earth  for  subtlety. "  Glanvill 
has  given  his  own  explanation  of  such  cases  else- 
where. He  thinks  that  the  sidereal  or  airy  body 
is  the  foundation  of  the  marvel,  and  Albert  de 
Rochas  has  found  a  like  foundation  for  the  marvels 
of  spiritism.  "The  transformation  of  witches," 
writes  Glanvill,  "into  the  shapes  of  other  animals 
.  .  .  is  very  conceivable;  since  then,  'tis  easy 
enough  to  imagine,  that  the  power  of  imagination 
may  form  those  passive  and  pliable  vehicles  into 
those  shapes, "  and  then  goes  on  to  account  for  the 
stories  where  an  injury,  say  to  the  witch  hare,  is 
found  afterwards  upon  the  witch's  body  precisely 
as  a  French  hypnotist  would  account  for  the 
stigmata  of  a  saint.     "When  they  feel  the  hurts 


250  Visions  and  Beliefs 

in  their  gross  bodies,  that  they  receive  in  their 
airy  vehicles,  they  must  be  supposed  to  have  been 
really  present,  at  least  in  these  latter;  and  'tis  no 
more  difficult  to  apprehend,  how  the  hurts  of  those 
should  be  translated  upon  their  other  bodies,  than 
how  diseases  should  be  inflicted  by  the  imagination, 
or  how  the  fancy  of  the  mother  should  wound  the 
foetus,  as  several  credible  relations  do  attest. " 

All  magical  or  Platonic  writers  of  the  times 
speak  much  of  the  transformation  or  projection  of 
the  sidereal  body  of  witch  or  wizard.  Once  the 
soul  escapes  from  the  natural  body,  though  but 
for  a  moment,  it  passes  into  the  body  of  air  and 
can  transform  itself  as  it  please  or  even  dream 
itself  into  some  shape  it  has  not  willed. 

"Chameleon-like  thus  they  their  colour  change, 
And  size  contract  and  then  dilate  again." 

One  of  their  favourite  stories  is  of  some  famous 
man,  John  Haydon  says  Socrates,  falling  asleep 
among  his  friends,  who  presently  see  a  mouse 
running  from  his  mouth  and  towards  a  little 
stream.  Somebody  lays  a  sword  across  the  stream 
that  it  may  pass,  and  after  a  little  while  it  returns 
across  the  sword  and  to  the  sleeper's  mouth  again. 
When  he  awakes  he  tells  them  that  he  has  dreamed 
of  himself  crossing  a  wide  river  by  a  great  iron 
bridge. 

But  the  witch's  wandering  and  disguised  double 
was  not  the  worst  shape  one  might  meet  in  the 
fields  or  roads  about  a  witch's  house.     She  was 


Witches  and  Wizards  251 

not  a  true  witch  unless  there  was  a  compact  (or  so 
it  seems)  between  her  and  an  evil  spirit  who  called 
himself  the  devil,  though  Bodin  believes  that  he 
was  often,  and  Glanvill  always,  "some  human 
soul  forsaken  of  God,"  for  "the  devil  is  a  body 
politic."  The  ghost  or  devil  promised  revenge 
on  her  enemies  and  that  she  would  never  want, 
and  she  upon  her  side  let  the  devil  suck  her  blood 
nightly  or  at  need. 

When  Elizabeth  Style  made  a  confession  of 
witchcraft  before  the  Justice  of  Somerset  in  1664, 
the  Justice  appointed  three  men,  William  Thick 
and  William  Read  and  Nicholas  Lambert,  to 
watch  her,  and  Glanvill  publishes  an  affidavit  of 
the  evidence  of  Nicholas  Lambert.  "About  three 
of  the  clock  in  the  morning  there  came  from  her 
head  a  glistering  bright  fly,  about  an  inch  in 
length  which  pitched  at  first  in  the  chimney  and 
then  vanished."  Then  two  smaller  flies  came 
and  vanished.  "He,  looking  steadfastly  then  on 
Style,  perceived  her  countenance  to  change,  and 
to  become  very  black  and  ghastly  and  the  fire 
also  at  the  same  time  changing  its  colour;  where- 
upon the  Examinant,  Thick  and  Read,  conceiving 
that  her  familiar  was  then  about  her,  looked  to  her 
poll,  and  seeing  her  hair  shake  very  strangely,  took 
it  up  and  then  a  fly  like  a  great  miller  flew  out 
from  the  place  and  pitched  on  the  table  board  and 
then  vanished  away.  Upon  this  the  Examinant 
and  the  other  two  persons,  looking  again  in  Style's 
poll,  found  it  very  red  and  like  raw  beef.     The  Ex- 


252  Visions  and  Beliefs 

aminant  ask'd  her  what  it  was  that  went  out  of 
her  poll,  she  said  it  was  a  butterfly,  and  asked  them 
why  they  had  not  caught  it.  Lambert  said,  they 
could  not.  I  think  so  too,  answered  she.  A  little 
while  after,  the  informant  and  the  others,  looking 
again  into  her  poll,  found  the  place  to  be  of  its 
former  colour.  The  Examinant  asked  again  what 
the  fly  was,  she  confessed  it  was  her  familiar  and 
that  she  felt  it  tickle  in  her  poll,  and  that  was  the 
usual  time  for  her  familiar  to  come  to  her."  These 
sucking  devils  alike  when  at  their  meal,  or  when 
they  went  here  and  there  to  do  her  will  or  about 
their  own  business,  had  the  shapes  of  pole-cat  or 
cat  or  greyhound  or  of  some  moth  or  bird.  At  the 
trials  of  certain  witches  in  Essex  in  1645  reported 
in  the  English  state  trials  a  principal  witness  was 
one  "Matthew  Hopkins,  gent."  Bishop  Hutchin- 
son, writing  in  1730,  describes  him  as  he  appeared 
to  those  who  laughed  at  witchcraft  and  had  brought 
the  witch  trials  to  an  end.  "Hopkins  went  on 
searching  and  swimming  poor  creatures,  till  some 
gentlemen,  out  of  indignation  of  the  barbarity,  took 
him,  and  tied  his  own  thumbs  and  toes  as  he  used 
to  tie  others,  and  when  he  was  put  into  the  water 
he  himself  swam  as  they  did.  That  cleared  the 
country  of  him  and  it  was  a  great  pity  that  they 
did  not  think  of  the  experiment  sooner."  Floating 
when  thrown  into  the  water  was  taken  for  a  sign  of 
witchcraft.  Matthew  Hopkins's  testimony,  how- 
ever, is  uncommonly  like  that  of  the  countryman 
who  told  Lady   Gregory  that   he  had  seen  his 


Witches  and  Wizards  253 

dog  and  some  shadow  fighting.  A  certain  Mrs. 
Edwards  of  Manintree  in  Essex  had  her  hogs  killed 
by  witchcraft,  and  "going  from  the  house  of  the 
said  Mrs.  Edwards  to  his  own  house,  about  nine 
or  ten  of  the  clock  that  night,  with  his  greyhound 
with  him,  he  saw  the  greyhound  suddenly  give  a 
jump,  and  run  as  she  had  been  in  full  course  after  a 
hare;  and  that  when  this  informant  made  haste  to 
see  what  his  greyhound  so  eagerly  pursued,  he 
espied  a  white  thing,  about  the  bigness  of  a  kitlyn, 
and  the  greyhound  standing  aloof  from  it;  and 
that  by  and  by  the  said  white  imp  or  kitlyn  danced 
about  the  greyhound,  and  by  all  likelihood  bit  off 
a  piece  of  the  flesh  of  the  shoulder  of  the  said 
greyhound;  for  the  greyhound  came  shrieking  and 
crying  to  the  informant,  with  a  piece  of  flesh  torn 
from  her  shoulder.  And  the  informant  further 
saith,  that  coming  into  his  own  yard  that  night,  he 
espied  a  black  thing  proportioned  like  a  cat,  only 
it  was  thrice  as  big,  sitting  on  a  strawberry  bed, 
and  fixing  the  eyes  on  this  informant,  and  when 
he  went  towards  it,  it  leaped  over  the  pale  towards 
this  informant,  as  he  thought,  but  ran  through  the 
yard,  with  his  greyhound  after  it,  to  a  great  gate, 
which  was  underset  with  a  pair  of  tumble  strings, 
and  did  throw  the  said  gate  wide  open,  and  then 
vanished;  and  the  said  greyhound  returned  again 
to  this  informant,  shaking  and  trembling  exceed- 
ingly." At  the  same  trial  Sir  Thomas  Bowes, 
Knight,  affirmed  "that  a  very  honest  man  of 
Manintree,  whom  he  knew  would  not  speak  an 


254  Visions  and  Beliefs 

untruth,  affirmed  unto  him,  that  very  early  one 
morning,  as  he  passed  by  the  said  Anne  West's 
door"  (this  is  the  witch  on  trial)  "about  four 
o'clock,  it  being  a  moonlight  night,  and  perceiving 
her  door  to  be  open  so  early  in  the  morning,  looked 
into  the  house  and  presently  there  came  three  or 
four  little  things,  in  the  shape  of  black  rabbits, 
leaping  and  skipping  about  him,  who,  having  a 
good  stick  in  his  hand,  struck  at  them,  thinking  to 
kill  them,  but  could  not;  but  at  last  caught  one 
of  them  in  his  hand,  and  holding  it  by  the  body 
of  it,  he  beat  the  head  of  it  against  his  stick,  intend- 
ing to  beat  out  the  brains  of  it ;  but  when  he  could 
not  kill  it  that  way,  he  took  the  body  of  it  in  one 
hand  and  the  head  of  it  in  another,  and  endeav- 
oured to  wring  off  the  head;  and  as  he  wrung  and 
stretched  the  neck  of  it,  it  came  out  between  his 
hands  like  a  lock  of  wool;  yet  he  would  not  give 
over  his  intended  purpose,  but  knowing  of  a 
spring  not  far  off,  he  went  to  drown  it;  but  still 
as  he  went  he  fell  down  and  could  not  go,  but 
down  he  fell  again,  so  that  he  at  last  crept  upon 
his  hands  and  knees  till  he  came  at  the  water, 
and  holding  it  fast  in  his  hand,  he  put  his  hand 
down  into  the  water  up  to  the  elbow,  and  held  it 
under  water  a  good  space  till  he  conceived  it  was 
drowned,  and  then  letting  go  his  hand,  it  sprung 
out  of  the  water  up  into  the  air,  and  so  vanished 
away."  However,  the  sucking  imps  were  not  al- 
ways invulnerable  for  Glanvill  tells  how  one  John 
Monpesson,  whose  house  was  haunted  by  such  a 


Witches  and  Wizards  255 

familiar,  "seeing  some  wood  move  that  was  in  the 
chimney  of  a  room,  where  he  was,  as  if  of  itself, 
discharged  a  pistol  into  it  after  which  they  found 
several  drops  of  blood  on  the  hearth  and  in  divers 
places  of  the  stairs."  I  remember  the  old  Aran 
man  who  heard  fighting  in  the  air  and  found  blood 
in  a  fish-box  and  scattered  through  the  room,  and 
I  remember  the  measure  of  blood  Odysseus  poured 
out  for  the  shades. 

The  English  witch  trials  are  like  the  popular 
poetry  of  England,  matter-of-fact  and  unimagi- 
native. The  witch  desires  to  kill  some  one  and 
when  she  takes  the  devil  for  her  husband  he  as 
likely  as  not  will  seem  dull  and  domestic.  Re- 
becca West  told  Matthew  Hopkins  that  the  devil 
appeared  to  her  as  she  was  going  to  bed  and  told  her 
he  would  marry  her.  He  kissed  her  but  was  as  cold 
as  clay,  and  he  promised  to  be  "her  loving  hus- 
band till  death,"  although  she  had,  as  it  seems,  but 
one  leg.  But  the  Scotch  trials  are  as  wild  and  pas- 
sionate as  is  the  Scottish  poetry,  and  we  find  our- 
selves in  the  presence  of  a  mythology  that  differs 
little,  if  at  all,  from  that  of  Ireland.  There  are 
orgies  of  lust  and  of  hatred  and  there  is  a  wild 
shamelessness  that  would  be  fine  material  for 
poets  and  romance  writers  if  the  world  should  come 
once  more  to  half-believe  the  tale.  They  are 
divided  into  troops  of  thirteen,  with  the  youngest 
witch  for  leader  in  every  troop,  and  though  they 
complain  that  the  embraces  of  the  devil  are  as 
cold  as  ice,  the  young  witches  prefer  him  to  their 


256  Visions  and  Beliefs 

husbands.  He  gives  them  money,  but  they  must 
spend  it  quickly,  for  it  will  be  but  dry  cow  dung 
in  two  circles  of  the  clock.  They  go  often  to 
Elfhame  or  Faeryland  and  the  mountains  open 
before  them  and  as  they  go  out  and  in  they  are 
terrified  by  the  "rowtling  and  skoylling"  of  the 
great  "elf  bulls."  They  sometimes  confess  to 
trooping  in  the  shape  of  cats  and  to  rinding  upon 
their  terrestrial  bodies  when  they  awake  in  the 
morning  the  scratches  they  had  made  upon  one 
another  in  the  night's  wandering,  or  should  they 
have  wandered  in  the  images  of  hares  the  bites  of 
dogs.  Isobell  Godie  who  was  tried  at  Lochlay  in 
1662  confessed  that  "We  put  besoms  in  our  beds 
with  our  husbands  till  we  return  again  to  them 
.  .  .  and  then  we  would  fly  away  where  we  would 
be,  even  as  straws  would  fly  upon  a  highway.  We 
will  fly  like  straws  when  we  please;  wild  straws 
and  corn  straws  will  be  horses  to  us,  and  we  put 
them  betwixt  our  feet  and  say  horse  and  hillock  in 
the  devil's  name.  And  when  any  see  these  straws 
in  a  whirlwind  and  do  not  sanctify  themselves,  we 
may  shoot  them  dead  at  our  pleasure."1  When 
they  kill  people,  she  goes  on  to  say,  the  souls 
escape  them  "but  their  bodies  remain  with  us 
and  will  fly  as  horses  to  us  all  as  small  as  straws." 
It  is  plain  that  it  is  the  "airy  body"  they  take 
possession  of;  those  "animal  spirits"  perhaps 
which  Henry  More  thought  to  be  the  link  between 

1 1  have  modernized  the  old  lowland  Scotch  in  these  quotations 
from  Pitcairn's  Criminal  Trials. 


Witches  and  Wizards  257 

soul  and  body  and  the  seat  of  all  vital  function. 
The  trials  were  more  unjust  than  those  of  England, 
where  there  was  a  continual  criticism  from  sceptics ; 
torture  was  used  again  and  again  to  distort  con- 
fessions, and  innocent  people  certainly  suffered; 
some  who  had  but  believed  too  much  in  their  own 
dreams  and  some  who  had  but  cured  the  sick  at 
some  vision's  prompting.  Alison  Pearson  who 
was  burnt  in  1588  might  have  been  Biddy  Early 
or  any  other  knowledgeable  woman  in  Ireland 
today.  She  was  convicted  "for  haunting  and 
repairing  with  the  Good  Neighbours  and  queen  of 
Elfhame,  these  divers  years  and  bypast,  as  she 
had  confessed  in  her  depositions,  declaring  that 
she  could  not  say  readily  how  long  she  was  with 
them;  and  that  she  had  friends  in  that  court  who 
were  of  her  own  blood  and  who  had  great  acquaint- 
ance of  the  queen  of  Elfhame.  That  when  she 
went  to  bed  she  never  knew  where  she  would  be 
carried  before  dawn."  When  they  worked  cures 
they  had  the  same  doctrine  of  the  penalty  that 
one  finds  in  Lady  Gregory's  stories.  One  who 
made  her  confession  before  James  I.  was  convicted 
for  "taking  the  sick  party's  pains  and  sicknesses 
upon  herself  for  a  time  and  then  translating  them 
to  a  third  person." 


11 


There  are  more  women  than  men  mediums  to- 
day; and  there  have  been  or  seem  to  have  been 

VOL   I — 17 


258  Visions  and  Beliefs 

more  witches  than  wizards.  The  wizards  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  relied  more 
upon  their  conjuring  book  than  the  witches  whose 
visions  and  experiences  seem  but  half  voluntary, 
and  when  voluntary  called  up  by  some  childish 
rhyme : 

Hare,  hare,  God  send  thee  care; 
I  am  in  a  hare's  likeness  now, 
But  I  shall  be  a  woman  even  now; 
Hare,  hare,  God  send  thee  care. 

More  often  than  not  the  wizards  were  learned  men, 
alchemists  or  mystics,  and  if  they  dealt  with  the 
devil  at  times,  or  some  spirit  they  called  by  that 
name,  they  had  amongst  them  ascetics  and  he- 
retical saints.  Our  chemistry,  our  metallurgy,  and 
our  medicine  are  often  but  accidents  that  befell 
in  their  pursuit  of  the  philosopher's  stone,  the 
elixir  of  life.  They  were  bound  together  in  secret 
societies  and  had,  it  may  be,  some  forgotten 
practice  for  liberating  the  soul  from  the  body  and 
sending  it  to  fetch  and  carry  them  divine  know- 
ledge. Cornelius  Agrippa  in  a  letter  quoted  by 
Beaumont  has  hints  of  such  a  practice.  Yet, 
like  the  witches,  they  worked  many  wonders  by 
the  power  of  the  imagination,  perhaps  one  should 
say  by  their  power  of  calling  up  vivid  pictures 
in  the  mind's  eye.  The  Arabian  philosophers 
have  taught,  writes  Beaumont,  "that  the  soul 
by  the  power  of  the  imagination  can  perform 
what  it  pleases;  as  penetrate  the  heavens,  force 


Witches  and  Wizards  259 

the  elements,  demolish  mountains,  raise  valleys 
to  mountains,  and  do  with  all  material  forms  as  it 
pleases. " 

He  shewed  hym,  er  he  wente  to  sopeer, 
Forestes,  parkes  ful  of  wilde  deer; 
Ther  saugh  he  hertes  with  hir  homes  hye, 
The  gretteste  that  evere  were  seyn  with  ye. 


Tho  saugh  he  knyghtes  justing  in  a  playn; 
And  after  this,  he  dide  hym  swich  plaisaunce, 
That  he  hym  shewed  his  lady  on  a  daunce 
On  which  hymself  he  daunced,  as  hym  though te. 
And  whan  this  maister,  that  this  magyk  wroughte, 
Saugh  it  was  tyme,  he  clapte  his  handes  two, 
And,  farewel !  al  our  revel  was  ago. 

One  has  not  as  careful  a  record  as  one  has  of  the 
works  of  witches,  for  but  few  English  wizards  came 
before  the  court,  the  only  society  for  psychical 
research  in  those  days.  The  translation,  however, 
of  Cornelius  Agrippa's  De  Occulta  Philosophia  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  with  the  addition  of  a 
spurious  fourth  book  full  of  conjurations,  seems 
to  have  filled  England  and  Ireland  with  whole 
or  half  wizards.  In  1703,  the  Reverend  Arthur 
Bedford  of  Bristol  who  is  quoted  by  Sibley  in  his 
big  book  on  astrology  wrote  to  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester  telling  how  a  certain  Thomas  Perks 
had  been  to  consult  him.  Thomas  Perks  lived 
with  his  father,  a  gunsmith,  and  devoted  his 
leisure  to  mathematics,  astronomy,  and  the  dis- 


2<5o  Visions  and  Beliefs 

covery  of  perpetual  motion.  One  day  he  asked 
the  clergyman  if  it  was  wrong  to  commune 
with  spirits,  and  said  that  he  himself  held  that 
"there  was  an  innocent  society  with  them  which 
a  man  might  use,  if  he  made  no  compacts  with 
them,  did  no  harm  by  their  means,  and  were 
not  curious  in  prying  into  hidden  things,  and 
he  himself  had  discoursed  with  them  and  heard 
them  sing  to  his  great  satisfaction."  He  then 
told  how  it  was  his  custom  to  go  to  a  crossway 
with  lantern  and  candle  consecrated  for  the  pur- 
pose, according  to  the  directions  in  a  book  he  had, 
and  having  also  consecrated  chalk  for  making  a 
circle.  The  spirits  appeared  to  him  "in  the  like- 
ness of  little  maidens  about  a  foot  and  a  half  high 
.  .  .  they  spoke  with  a  very  shrill  voice  like  an 
ancient  woman"  and  when  he  begged  them  to 
sing,  "they  went  to  some  distance  behind  a  bush 
from  whence  he  could  hear  a  perfect  concert  of 
such  exquisite  music  as  he  never  before  heard; 
and  in  the  upper  part  he  heard  something  very 
harsh  and  shrill  like  a  reed  but  as  it  was  managed 
did  give  a  particular  grace  to  the  rest."  The 
Reverend  Arthur  Bedford  refused  an  introduction 
to  the  spirits  for  himself  and  a  friend  and  warned 
him  very  solemnly.  Having  some  doubt  of  his 
sanity,  he  set  him  a  difficult  mathematical  prob- 
lem, but  finding  that  he  worked  it  easily,  concluded 
him  sane.  A  quarter  of  a  year  later,  the  young 
man  came  again,  but  showed  by  his  face  and  his 
eyes  that  he  was  very  ill  and  lamented  that  he  had 


Witches  and  Wizards  261 

not  followed  the  clergyman's  advice  for  his  con- 
jurations would  bring  him  to  his  death.  He  had 
decided  to  get  a  familiar  and  had  read  in  his 
magical  book  what  he  should  do.  He  was  to  make 
a  book  of  virgin  parchment,  consecrate  it,  and  bring 
it  to  the  cross-road,  and  having  called  up  his 
spirits,  ask  the  first  of  them  for  its  name  and 
write  that  name  on  the  first  page  of  the  book  and 
then  question  another  and  write  that  name  on  the 
second  page  and  so  on  till  he  had  enough  familiars. 
He  had  got  the  first  name  easily  enough  and  it  was 
in  Hebrew,  but  after  that  they  came  in  fearful 
shapes,  lions  and  bears  and  the  like,  or  hurled  at 
him  balls  of  fire.  He  had  to  stay  there  among  those 
terrifying  visions  till  the  dawn  broke  and  would 
not  be  the  better  of  it  till  he  died.  I  have  read 
in  some  eighteenth-century  book  whose  name  I 
cannot  recall  of  two  men  who  made  a  magic  circle 
and  who  invoked  the  spirits  of  the  moon  and 
saw  them  trampling  about  the  circle  as  great  bulls, 
or  rolling  about  it  as  flocks  of  wool.  One  of  Lady 
Gregory's  story-tellers  considered  a  flock  of  wool 
one  of  the  worst  shapes  that  a  spirit  could  take. 
There  must  have  been  many  like  experimenters 
in  Ireland.  An  Irish  alchemist  called  Butler  was 
supposed  to  have  made  successful  transmutations 
in  London  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
in  the  Life  of  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  published  in  1833, 
are  several  letters  from  a  Dublin  maker  of  stained 
glass  describing  a  transmutation  and  a  conjura- 
tion into  a  tumbler  of  water  of  large  lizards.     The 


262  Visions  and  Beliefs 

alchemist  was  an  unknown  man  who  had  called 
to  see  him  and  claimed  to  do  all  by  the  help  of 
the  devil  "who  was  the  friend  of  all  ingenious 
gentlemen." 

W.  B.  Y. 
1914. 


NOTES 


263 


NOTES 

Note  i.  The  Faery  People.  The  first  detailed  account 
of  the  Faery  People  of  the  Gaelic  race  was  made  by  the  Rev- 
erend Robert  Kirk  in  1691.  His  book  which  remained  in 
manuscript  till  it  was  discovered  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  1815 
was  called  The  Secret  Commonwealth,  an  essay  "of  the  nature 
of  the  subterranean  (and  for  the  most  part  invisible  people) 
heretofore  going  under  the  names  of  elves,  fays,  and  faeries." 
Kirk  was  a  Gaelic  scholar,  a  translator  into  Gaelic  of  the 
Psalms.  He  is  described  upon  his  tomb  as  Lignce  hibernce 
lumen,  for  in  his  day  little  distinction  was  made  between  the 
Irish  and  the  Scottish-Irish  among  whom  he  lived  and  whose 
words  he  has  recorded.  He  died  a  year  after  he  had  finished  his 
manuscript  or,  as  the  people  of  his  parish  say,  was  taken  by  the 
faeries.  The  Reverend  William  1  aylor,  the  present  incumbent  of 
Abberfoyle,  Kirk's  old  living,  told  Mr.  Wentz  that  it  was  generally 
believed  at  the  time  of  Kirk's  death,  that  the  faeries  had  carried 
him  off  because  he  had  looked  too  deeply  into  their  secrets.  He 
seems  to  have  fainted  while  walking  upon  a  faery  knoll,  a  little 
way  from  his  own  door,  and  to  have  died  immediately.  Mr. 
Wentz  found  one  old  Gaelic  speaker  who  believed  that  his  spirit 
had  been  taken,  but  others  who  said  there  was  nothing  in  the 
grave  but  a  coffin  full  of  stones,  for  body  and  soul  had  been 
taken.  Mr.  Lang  prints  a  tradition  that  Kirk  appeared  to  his 
cousin  Graham  of  Ducray  and  could  have  been  saved  if  the  cousin 
had  dared  to  throw  a  knife  over  the  apparition's  head. 

Kirk  describes  "the  subterranean  people"  or  "the  abstruse 
people,"  as  he  sometimes  calls  them,  much  as  they  are  described 
today  in  Galway  or  in  Mayo.  He  is  clear  that  they  are  not 
demons  and  like  Father  Sinistrari,  a  Catholic  theologian  of 
Padua,  quotes  the  Scriptures  in  support  of  this  opinion.  The 
"abstruse  people"  are  not  indeed,  without  sin  though  midway 

265 


266  Visions  and  Beliefs 

between  men  and  angels,  but  being  in  no  way  "drenched  into  so 
gross  and  dredgy  bodies  as  we,  are  especially  given  to  the  more 
spiritual  and  haughty  sins. "  "Whatever  their  own  laws,  be  sure 
according  to  ours  and  equity  natural  civil  and  revealed"  they  do 
wrong  by  "their  stealing  of  nurses  to  their  children  and  that  other 
sort  of  Plaginism  in  catching  our  children  away  (may  seem  to 
heir  some  estate  in  those  invisible  dominions)  which  never  return. 
For  the  inconvenience  of  their  succubi  who  tryst  with  men  it  is 
abominable,  but  for  swearing  and  intemperance  they  are  not 
observed  so  subject  to  this  irregularity  as  to  envy,  spite,  hypocri- 
sy, lying,  and  simulation. "  Some  have  thought  the  spirit  controls 
of  our  best  mediums  no  better.  "They  are  not  subject  to  sore 
sickness,  but  dwindle  and  decay  at  a  certain  period  all  about  ane 
age"  and  "they  pass  after  a  long  healthy  life  into  one  orb  and 
receptacle  fitted  to  their  degree  till  they  come  under  the  general 
cognism  at  the  last  day."  They  are  the  "Sleagh  Math  or  the 
good  people"  being  called  so  by  the  "Irish"  .  .  .  "to  prevent  the 
dint  of  their  ill-attempts  "  and  being  "of  a  middle  nature  betwixt 
man  and  angel"  have  "intelligent,  studious  spirits,  and  light 
changeable  bodies  (like  those  called  astral)  somewhat  of  the 
nature  of  a  condensed  cloud  and  best  seen  in  twilight.  Their 
bodies  are  so  pliable  through  the  subtlety  of  the  spirits  that  agi- 
tate them  that  they  can  make  them  appear  or  disappear  at 
pleasure.  Some  have  bodies  or  vehicles  so  spongeous,  thin,  and 
desiccate,  that  they  are  fed  by  only  sucking  into  some  fine  spiri- 
tuous liquors  that  pierce  like  pure  air  and  oil;  others  feed  more 
gross  on  the  f  oisone  or  substance  of  corns  and  liquors  or  corn  itself 
that  grows  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth  which  these  faeries 
steal  away,  partly  invisible,  partly  preying  on  the  grain  as  do 
crows  and  mice. "  Lady  Gregory  has  a  story  of  the  crying  of  new 
dropped  lambs  of  faery  in  November  and  some  evidence  that 
there  is  a  reversal  of  the  seasons,  our  winter  being  their  summer, 
and  some  such  belief  was  known  to  Kirk  for  "when  we  have 
plenty  they  have  scarcity  at  their  homes ;  and  on  the  contrary  (for 
they  are  empowered  to  catch  as  much  prey  everywhere  as  they 
please)."  "Their  bodies  of  congealed  air  are  sometimes  carried 
aloft,  other  whiles  grovel  in  different  shapes  and  enter  into  any 
cranny  or  cleft  of  the  earth  where  air  enters  to  their  ordinary 
dwellings,  the  earth  being  full  of  cavities  and  cells  and  there 
being  no  place  nor  creature  but  is  supposed  to  have  other  animals 
greater  or  lesser,  living  in  or  upon  it  as  inhabitants,  and  no  such 


Notes  267 

thing  as  a  pure  wilderness  in  the  whole  universe"  and  we  must 
always  "labour  for  that  abstruse  people  as  well  as  for  ourselves." 
Unless  Kirk  is  in  error,  as  seems  probable,  they  are  unlike  the 
Irish  faeries  who  shift  but  twice  a  year  in  May  and  in  November, 
when  the  ancient  Irish  perhaps  shifted  from  their  winter  houses  to 
summer  pastures  or  home  again,  for  they  have  formed  the  custom 
to  "remove  to  other  lodgings  at  the  beginning  of  each  quarter  of 
the  year,  so  traversing  till  doomsday  some  being  impudent  [im- 
potent?] of  staying  in  one  place  and  finding  some  ease  by  so  purn- 
ing  [turning]  and  changing  habitations,"  and  at  these  times 
they  are  much  seen  when  "their  chameleon-like  bodies  swim  in 
the  air  near  the  earth  with  bag  and  baggage."  He  is  evidently 
puzzled  how  to  place  them  among  the  orders  and  admits  that 
it  is  uncertain  "  what  at  the  last  revolution  will  become  of  them 
when  they  are  locked  up  into  ane  unchangeable  condition."  He 
even  believes  that  they  are  so  beset  with  anxiety  upon  this  sub- 
ject that  have  they  "any  frolic  fits  of  mirth  'tis  as  the  confirmed 
grinning  of  a  mort  head." 

Many  of  the  second-sighted  men  about  him  would  have 
nothing  of  this  doctrine  and  still  believed,  it  seems,  the  old  Celtic 
theory  of  the  rebirth  of  the  soul,  a  Manichaean  and  gnostic 
doctrine,  for  being  "unwary  in  their  observations"  they  believed 
what  the  "abstruse  people"  themselves  declared  "one  averring 
those  subterranean  people  to  be  departed  souls  attending  awhile 
in  this  inferior  state  and  clothed  with  bodies  procured  through 
their  alms  deeds  in  this  life ;  fluid,  active  ethereal  vehicles  to  hold 
them  that  they  may  not  scatter  or  wander  or  be  lost  in  the  totum 
or  the  first  nothing;  but  if  any  were  so  impious  as  to  have  given 
no  alms  they  say  when  the  souls  of  such  do  depart,  they  sleep  in  an 
uncertain  state  till  they  resume  the  terrestrial  body."  These 
bodies,  come  at  by  the  giving  of  alms,  suggest  to  one  that  body  of 
Christ  which,  as  Boehme  taught,  alone  enables  the  shade  to  escape 
from  turba  magna  the  great  wrath  and  dream-like  transforma- 
tion into  the  shape  of  beasts.  One  remembers  also  the  celestial 
body  of  the  seventeenth  century  Platonists.  The  power  attributed 
to  almsgiving  calls  to  mind  those  tales  of  clothes  given  to  the 
poor  in  some  ghost's  name  thereby  enabling  the  ghost  to  be 
decked  out  in  their  double.  Lady  Gregory  has  found  the  idea  of 
rebirth  in  Aran,  but  in  what  seems  the  Cabalistic  form  not  the 
Celtic;  and  it  occurs  again  and  again  in  the  Gaelic  romances. 
Cuchulain  was  the  rebirth  of  Lug;  and  Mongan  who  was  killed 


268  Visions  and  Beliefs 

by  Arthur  of  Britain  was  the  rebirth  of  Finn  Mac  Cool. 
Here  and  there  through  the  seventeenth  century  Platonists, 
Kirk's  contemporaries,  one  finds  some  story  that  might  have 
been  in  Lady  Gregory's  book.  Glanvill  in  the  second  part  of  his 
Sadducismus  Triumphatus  published  in  1674  nas  an  Irish  tale 
where  the  dead  and  the  faeries  are  associated  as  in  Gal  way  today. 
"A  gentleman  in  Ireland  near  to  the  Earl  of  Orrery's  seat  sending 
his  butler  one  afternoon  to  buy  cards;  as  he  passed  a  field,  he,  to  his 
wonder,  espied  a  company  of  people  sitting  round  a  table,  with  a 
deal  of  good  cheer  before  them  in  the  midst  of  a  field.  And  he 
going  up  towards  them,  they  all  arose  and  saluted  him,  and 
desired  him  to  sit  down  with  them."  But  one  of  them  said  these 
words  in  his  ear:  "Do  nothing  this  company  invites  you  to."  "  He 
therefore  refused  to  sit  down  at  the  table,  and  immediately  the 
table  and  all  that  belonged  to  it  were  gone;  and  the  company  are 
now  dancing  and  playing  upon  musical  instruments,  and  the 
butler  being  desired  to  join  himself  to  them;  but  he  refusing  this 
also,  they  fall  all  to  work,  and  he  not  being  to  be  prevailed  with 
to  accompany  them  in  working,  any  more  than  in  feasting  and 
dancing,  they  all  disappeared,  and  the  butler  is  now  alone. "  For 
some  days  attempts  are  made  to  carry  away  the  butler.  During 
one  of  these  he  is  levitated  in  the  presence  of  the  Earl  of 
Orrery  and  certain  of  his  guests.  Then  the  man  who  warned 
him  to  do  nothing  he  was  bid,  came  to  his  bedside.  "'I  have 
been  dead,'  said  the  spectre  or  ghost,  'seven  years  and  you  know 
that  I  lived  a  loose  life.  And  ever  since  have  been  hurried  up 
and  down  in  a  restless  condition  with  the  company  you  saw  and 
shall  be  till  the  Day  of  Judgment.' " 

Throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  there  must  have  been  many 
discussions  upon  those  questions  that  divided  Kirk's  Highlanders. 
Were  these  beings  but  the  shades  of  men?  Were  they  a  separate 
race?  Were  they  spirits  of  evil?  Above  all,  perhaps,  were  they 
capable  of  salvation?  Father  Sinistrari  in  De  Dcemonialitate  et 
Incubis,  et  Succubis,  reprinted  in  Paris  with  an  English  transla- 
tion in  1879,  tells  a  story  which  must  have  been  familiar  through 
the  Irish  Middle  Ages,  and  the  seed  of  many  discussions.  The 
Abbot  Anthony  went  once  upon  a  journey  to  visit  St.  Paul,  the 
first  hermit.  After  travelling  for  some  days  into  the  desert,  he  met 
a  centaur  of  whom  he  asked  his  road  and  the  centaur,  muttering 
barbarous  and  unintelligible  words,  pointed  to  the  road  with  his 
outstretched  hand  and  galloped  away  and  hid  himself  in  a  wood. 


Notes  269 

St.  Anthony  went  some  way  further  and  presently  went  into  a 
valley  and  met  there  a  little  man  with  goat's  feet  and  horns  upon 
his  forehead.  St.  Anthony  stood  still  and  made  the  sign  of  the 
cross  being  afraid  of  some  devil's  trick.  But  the  sign  of  the  cross 
did  not  alarm  the  little  man  who  went  nearer  and  offered  some 
dates  very  respectfully  as  it  seemed  to  make  peace.  When  the 
old  Saint  asked  him  who  he  was,  he  said:  "I  am  a  mortal,  one  of 
those  inhabitants  of  the  desert  called  fauns,  satyrs,  and  incubi, 
by  the  Gentiles.  I  have  come  as  an  ambassador  from  my  people. 
I  ask  you  to  pray  for  us  to  our  common  God  who  came  as  we 
know  for  the  salvation  of  the  world  and  who  is  praised  throughout 
the  world."  We  are  not  told  whether  St.  Anthony  prayed  but 
merely  that  he  thought  of  the  glory  of  Christ  and  thereafter  of 
Christ's  enemies  and  turning  towards  Alexandria  said:  "Woe 
upon  you  harlots  worshipping  animals  as  God."  This  tale  so 
artfully  arranged  as  it  seems  to  set  the  pious  by  the  ears  may  have 
been  the  original  of  a  tale  one  hears  in  Ireland  today.  I  heard  or 
read  that  tale  somewhere  before  I  was  twenty,  for  it  is  the  subject 
of  one  of  my  first  poems.  But  the  priest  in  the  Irish  tale,  as  I 
remember  it,  tells  the  little  man  that  there  is  no  salvation  for  such 
as  he  and  it  ends  with  the  wailing  of  the  faery  host.  Sometimes 
too,  one  reads  in  Irish  stories  of  hoof -footed  creatures,  and  it  may 
well  be  that  the  Irish  theologians  who  read  of  St.  Anthony  in 
Sinistrari's  authority,  St.  Hieronymus,  thought  centaur  and 
homunculus  were  of  like  sort  with  the  shades  haunting  their 
own  raths  and  barrows.  Father  Sinistrari  draws  the  moral  that 
those  inhabitants  of  the  desert  called  "fauns  and  satyrs  and 
incubi  by  the  Gentiles"  had  souls  that  could  be  shrived,  but 
Irish  theologians  in  a  country  full  of  poems  very  upsetting  to 
youth  about  the  women  of  the  Sidhe  who  could  pass,  it  may  be 
even  monastic  walls,  may  have  turned  the  doubtful  tale  the 
other  way.  Sometimes  we  are  told  following  the  traditions  of  the 
eleventh-century  poems  that  the  Sidhe  are  "the  ancient  inhabi- 
tants of  the  country"  but  more  often  still  they  are  fallen  angels 
who,  because  they  were  too  bad  for  heaven  and  not  bad  enough 
for  hell,  have  been  sent  into  the  sea  and  into  the  waste  places. 
More  probably  still  the  question  was  never  settled,  sometimes 
Christ  was  represented  as  throwing  them  into  hell  till  someone 
said  he  would  empty  the  whole  paradise,  and  thereupon  his  hand 
slackened  and  some  fell  in  this  place  and  some  in  that  other,  as 
though  providence  itself  were  undecided.     Father  Sinistrari  is 


270  Visions  and  Beliefs 

conscious  of  weighty  opponents  but  believes  that  Scripture  is 
upon  his  side.  He  quotes  St.  John,  Chapter  x.,  verse  16:  "And 
other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this  fold;  them  also  I  must 
bring  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice  and  there  shall  be  one  fold  and 
one  shepherd. "  He  argues  that  the  commentators  are  wrong  who 
say  that  the  fold  is  the  synagogue  and  the  other  sheep  the  Gentiles, 
because  the  true  church  has  been  from  the  beginning  of  the  world, 
and  has  had  nothing  to  do  with  Jewish  observances,  for  its  revela- 
tions were  made  to  the  first  man  and  Jews  and  Gentiles  have 
belonged  to  it.  If  the  Gentiles  were  not  also  of  Christ's  fold,  he 
would  not  have  sent  them  prodigies  to  announce  his  birth,  the 
star  of  the  Magi,  the  silencing  of  their  oracle,  a  miraculous  spring 
of  oil  at  Rome,  the  falling  down  of  the  images  of  Egyptian  gods 
and  so  on.  The  other  fold  should  therefore,  he  thinks,  refer 
to  those  "rational  animals"  who  sent  their  ambassador  to  St. 
Anthony  and  who  were  to  hear  Christ's  voice  "either  directly 
through  Himself  or  through  His  apostles."  He  argues  that  they 
are  a  race  superior  to  the  human  and  must  not  be  confused  with 
angels  and  devils  who  are  pure  spirits  being  in  a  final  state  of 
salvation  or  of  judgment.  He  has  written  his  book  as  a  guide  to 
confessors  who  have  frequently,  it  seems,  to  protect  men  and 
women,  often  nuns  or  monks,  who  are  plagued  by  spirits  or 
tempted  by  spirit  lovers,  and  to  apportion  penalties  to  those  who 
have  fallen.  It  is  a  great  sin  should  they  confuse  their  lovers  with 
devils,  for  then  they  "sin  through  intention,"  but  otherwise  it  is  a 
venal  sin,  and  seeing  that  incubi  and  succubi  by  reason  of  their 
"rational  and  immortal"  spirits  are  the  equal  of  man  and  by 
reason  of  their  bodies  being  "more  noble  because  more  subtle," 
"more  dignified  than  man, "  a  commerce  that  does  not  "degrade 
but  rather  dignify  our  nature"  (et  hoc  homo  jungens  se  incubo 
non  vilificat,  immo  dignificat  suam  naturam).  The  incubus, 
(or  succuba)  however,  does,  he  holds,  commit  a  very  great  sin 
considering  that  we  belong  to  an  inferior  species.  It  is  difficult 
to  drive  them  away,  for  unlike  devils  they  are  no  more  subject 
to  exorcism  than  we  are  ourselves,  but  just  as  we  cannot  breathe 
in  the  higher  peaks  of  the  Alps  because  of  the  thinness  of  the  air, 
so  they  cannot  come  near  to  us  if  we  make  certain  conditions  of 
the  air.  They  are  of  different  kinds  but  always  one  or  other  of 
the  four  elements  predominates,  and  those  who  are  predominantly 
fiery  cannot  come  if  we  make  the  air  damp,  and  those  that  are 
watery  cannot  come  if  we  use  hot  fumigations  and  so  on.    You 


Notes  271 

can  generally  judge  the  kind  by  remembering  that  a  man  attracts 
spirits  according  to  his  own  temperament,  the  sanguine,  the 
spirits  of  fire,  and  the  lymphatic,  those  of  watery  nature,  and 
those  of  a  mixed  nature,  mixed  spirits;  but  it  is  easy  to  make 
mistakes.  He  tells  of  the  case  that  came  into  his  own  experience. 
He  was  asked  to  drive  a  spirit  away  that  was  troubling  a  young 
monk  and  advised  hot  fumigations  because  it  was  by  their  means 
"a  very  erudite  theologian"  drove  away  a  spirit  who  made 
passionate  love  in  the  form  of  "a  very  handsome  young  man  to  a 
certain  young  nun"  after  holy  candles  burning  all  night  and  "a 
crowd  of  relics  and  many  exorcisms"  had  proved  of  but  as  little 
value  as  her  own  vows  and  fasts.  A  vessel  made  of  "glass-like 
earth"  containing  "cubeb  seed,  roots  of  both  aristolochies,  great 
and  small  cardamon,  ginger,  long  pepper,  caryophylias,  cinnamon, 
cloves,  mace,  nutmeg,  calamite,  storax,  benzoin,  aloes  wood  root, 
one  ounce  of  triasandates  and  three  pounds  of  half  brandy  and 
water, "  was  set  upon  hot  ashes  to  make  it  fume,  and  the  door  and 
window  of  the  cell  were  closed.  The  young  friar,  a  deacon  of  the 
great  Carthusian  priory  of  Padua,  was  further  advised  to  carry 
about  with  him  perfumes  of  musk,  amber,  chive,  peruvian  bark, 
and  the  like,  and  to  smoke  tobacco  and  drink  brandy  perfumed 
with  musk.  All  was  to  no  purpose  for  the  spirit  appeared  to  him 
in  many  forms  such  as  "a  skeleton,  a  pig,  an  ass,  an  angel,  a  bird" 
or  "  in  the  figure  of  one  or  other  of  the  friars. ' '  These  appearances 
seem  to  have  had  no  object  except  that  like  the  Irish  faeries  the 
spirit  was  pleased  to  make  game  of  somebody.  Presently  it  came 
in  the  likeness  of  the  abbot  and  heard  the  young  deacon's 
confession  and  recited  with  him  the  psalms  Exsurgat  Deus 
and  Qui  habitat  and  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John,  and 
bent  its  knee  at  the  words  Verbum  caro  factum  est,  and  then 
after  sprinkling  with  holy  water  and  blessing  bed  and  cell  and 
commanding  the  spirit  to  come  there  no  more,  it  vanished. 
Presently  in  the  likeness  of  the  young  friar,  it  called  at  the  vicar's 
room  and  asked  for  some  tobacco  and  brandy  perfumed  with 
musk  of  which  it  was,  it  said,  extremely  fond,  and  having  received 
them  "disappeared  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye."  Sinistrari, 
however,  having  decided  that  the  demon  must  be  igneous  or  "at 
the  very  least  aerial,  since  he  delighted  in  hot  substances"  and 
since  the  monk's  temperament  seemed  "choleric  and  sanguine," 
advised  the  vicar  to  direct  his  penitent  to  strew  about  the  cell 
and  hang  by  the  window  and  door  bundles  of  "water-lily,  liver- 


272  Visions  and  Beliefs 

wort,  spurge,  mandrake,  house-leek,  plantain,"  and  henbane  and 
other  herbs  of  a  damp  nature  which  drove  the  spirit  away  though 
it  came  once  to  the  cell  door  to  speak  of  Sinistrari  all  the  evil  it 
could.  He  has  other  like  stories;  one  to  show  the  uselessness 
of  mere  sacred  places  and  objects,  describes  a  woman  followed  to 
the  steps  of  the  Cathedral  altar  and  there  stripped  by  invisible 
hands. 

One  remembers  a  passage  in  Plutarch:  "But  to  believe  the 
gods  have  carnal  knowledge,  and  do  delight  in  the  outward 
beauty  of  creatures,  that  seemeth  to  carry  a  very  hard  belief. 
Yet  the  wise  Egyptians  think  it  probable  enough  and  likely,  that 
the  spirit  of  the  gods  hath  given  original  of  generation  to  women, 
and  does  beget  fruits  of  their  bodies;  howbeit  they  hold  that  a 
man  can  have  no  corporal  company  with  any  divine  nature." 

One  hears  today  in  Galway,  stories  of  love  adventures  between 
countrywomen  or  countrymen  and  the  People  of  Faery — there 
are  several  in  this  book  and  these  adventures  have  been  always  a 
principal  theme  to  Gaelic  poets.  A  goddess  came  to  Cuchulain 
upon  the  battlefield,  but  sometimes  it  is  the  mortal  who  must  go 
to  them.  "Oh  beautiful  woman,  will  you  come  with  me  to  the 
wonderful  country  that  is  mine?  It  is  pleasant  to  be  looking  at 
the  people  there:  beautiful  people  without  any  blemish;  their 
hair  is  of  the  colour  of  the  flag  flower,  their  fair  body  is  as  white 
as  snow,  the  colour  of  the  foxglove  is  on  every  cheek.  The  young 
never  grow  old  there,  the  fields  and  the  flowers  are  as  pleasant  to 
be  looking  at  as  the  blackbird's  eggs;  warm  and  sweet  streams  of 
mead  and  wine  flow  through  that  country;  there  is  no  care  and  no 
sorrow  upon  any  person ;  we  see  others,  but  we  ourselves  are  not 
seen."  Did  Dame  Kettler,  a  great  lady  of  Kilkenny  who  was 
accused  of  witchcraft  early  in  the  fifteenth  century,  find  such  a 
lover  when  she  offered  up  the  combs  of  cocks  and  the  bronzed 
tail  feathers  of  nine  peacocks;  or  had  she  indeed,  as  her  enemies 
affirmed  at  the  trial,  been  enamoured  with  "one  of  the  meaner 
sort  of  hell"? 

Note  2.  This  light  occurs  again  and  again  in  modern  spiritism 
as  in  old  legends.  It  shows  in  some  form  in  almost  every  dark 
seance.  Grettir  the  Strong  saw  it  over  buried  treasure.  It 
surrounded  the  head  of  Hereward  the  Wake  in  childhood,  and 
in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Baron  Reichenbach 
called  it  "odic  light"  and  published  much  evidence  taken  down 


Notes  273 

from  his  "sensitives"  who  saw  it  about  crystals,  magnets,  and 
one  another,  and  over  new-made  graves.  Holman  Hunt  repre- 
sents in  his  Flight  into  Egypt  the  souls  of  the  Innocents  encircled 
by  creeping  and  clinging  fire.  When  this  fire  encircles  a  good 
spirit  it  is  generally  described  as  white  and  brilliant,  but  about  the 
evil  as  lurid  and  smoky. 


Note  3.  When  I  was  a  boy,  there  was  a  countryman  in  a 
Sligo  madhouse  who  was  sane  in  all  ways  except  that  he  saw,  in 
pools  and  rivers,  beings  who  called  and  beckoned.  I  have  myself 
known  a  landscape  painter  who  after  painting  a  certain  stagnant 
pool  was  nightly  afflicted  by  a  dream  of  strange  shapes,  bidding 
him  to  drown  himself  there.  The  obsession  was  so  strong  that  he 
could  not  throw  it  off  during  his  waking  hours,  and  for  some  days 
struggled  with  the  temptation.  I  was  with  him  at  the  time  and 
had  noticed  his  growing  gloom  and  had  questioned  him  about  it. 

Note  4.  Bran,  in  the  Voyage  of  Bran  when  sailing,  meets 
Manannan  the  sea-god.  "And  Manannan  spoke  to  him  in  a  song, 
and  it  is  what  he  said: 

"It  is  what  Bran  thinks,  he  is  going  in  his  curragh  over  the 
wonderful,  beautiful,  clear  sea;  but  to  me,  from  far  off  in  my 
chariot,  it  is  a  flowery  plain  he  is  riding  on. 

"What  is  a  clear  sea  to  the  good  boat  Bran  is  in,  is  a  happy 
plain  with  many  flowers  to  me  in  my  two-wheeled  chariot. 

"It  is  what  Bran  sees,  many  waves  beating  across  the  clear 
sea;  it  is  what  I  myself  see,  red  flowers  without  any  fault. 

"The  sea-horses  are  bright  in  summer-time,  as  far  as  Bran's 
eyes  can  reach ;  there  is  a  wood  of  beautiful  acorns  under  the  head 
of  your  little  boat. 

"A  wood  with  blossom  and  with  fruit,  that  has  the  smell  of 
wine;  a  wood  without  fault,  without  withering,  with  leaves  of  the 
colour  of  gold. "      {Gods  and  Fighting  Men,  by  Lady  Gregory.) 

Note  5.  Swedenborg  describes  these  colours  and  I  have  a  note 
of  similar  visions  as  seen  by  a  fellow-student  of  mine  at  the 
Dublin  Art  School.  Mrs.  Besant  in  her  Ancient  Wisdom  and 
other  writers  of  the  Modern  Theosophical  School  describe  them 
and  moralize  about  them. 
vol  1— 18 


274  Visions  and  Beliefs 

Note  6.  There  are  constant  stories  in  the  history  of  modern 
spiritism  of  people  carried  through  the  air  often  for  considerable 
distances.  It  is  not  my  business  to  weigh  the  evidence  at  this 
moment,  for  I  am  concerned  only  with  similarity  of  belief.  The 
medium,  Mrs.  Guppy,  somewhere  in  the  "sixties"  was  believed 
to  have  been  carried  from  Hampstead,  a  pen  in  one  hand  and  an 
account  book  in  the  other,  and  dropped  on  to  the  middle  of  a  table 
in  South  Conduit  Street.  Lord  Dunraven  was  one  of  a  number  of 
witnesses  who  testified  to  having  seen  the  medium  Hume  float 
out  of  one  window  of  the  upper  room,  where  they  were  sitting, 
and  in  at  another  window.  I  read  the  other  day  in  a  spiritistic 
paper,  of  two  boys  carried  through  the  air  in  Italy  and  dropped  in 
front  of  a  bishop  who  immediately  handed  them  over  to  the 
police.  And  of  course  the  folk-lore  of  all  countries  and  the  legends 
of  the  saints  are  full  of  such  tales. 

Note  7.  The  offering  to  the  Sidhe  is  generally  made  at 
Hallowe'en,  the  old  beginning  of  winter,  and  upon  that  night  I 
was  told  when  a  boy  the  offering  was  still  made  in  the  slums  of 
Dublin. 

Note  8.  Father  Sinistrari  speaks  of  a  like  commerce  between 
beasts  and  spirits.  "Et  non  solum  hoc  evenit  cum  mulieribus, 
sed  etiam  cum  equabus,  cum  quibus  commicetur;  quae  si  libenter 
coitum  admittunt,  ab  eo  curantur  optime,  ac  ipsarum  jubae  varie 
artificiosis  et  inextricabilibus  nodis  texuntur;  si  autem  ilium 
adversentur,  eas  male  tractat,  percutit,  macras  reddit,  et  tandem 
necat,  ut  quotidiana  constat  experienta. 

Note  9.  Houses  built  upon  faery  paths  are  thought  to  be 
unlucky.  Often  the  thatch  will  be  blown  away,  or  their  inhabi- 
tants die  or  suffer  misfortune. 

Note  10.  The  number  of  quotations  I  can  find  to  prove  the 
universality  of  the  thought  that  the  dead  and  other  spirits  change 
their  shape  as  they  please  is  but  lessened  by  the  fewness  of  the 
books  that  are  near  my  hand  in  the  country  where  I  am  writing. 
John  Heydon,  "a  servant  of  God  and  secretary  of  nature," 
writing  in  1662  in  The  Rosie  Cross  Uncovered  which  is  the  last 
book  of  his  Holy  Guide  says  that  a  man  may  become  one  of  the 
heroes:    "A  hero, "  he  writes,  "  is  a  daemon,  or  good  genius,  and  a 


Notes  275 

genius  a  partaker  of  divine  things  and  a  companion  of  the  holy 
company  of  unbodied  souls  and  immortal  angels  who  live  accord- 
ing to  their  vehicles  a  versatile  life,  turning  themselves  proteus- 
like into  any  shape." 

And  Mrs.  Besant,  a  typical  writer  of  the  modern  Theosophical 
School,  insists  upon  these  changes  of  form,  especially  among  those 
spirits  that  are  most  free  from  the  terrestrial  body  and  explains 
it  by  saying  that,  "astral  matter  takes  form  under  every  impulse 
of  thought."  Swedenborg  I  have  already  quoted  in  my  long 
essay,  but  to  prove  that  the  shape-changer  is  a  part  of  general 
literature — I  have  but  Wordsworth  and  Milton  under  my  hand. 
When  the  white  doe  of  Rylstone  shows  itself  at  the  church  door 
according  to  its  Sunday  custom,  one  has  one  tale  to  tell,  another 
another,  but  an  Oxford  student  will  have  it  that  it  is  the  faery 
that  loved  a  certain  "shepherd-lord. " 

"'Twas  said  that  she  all  shapes  could  wear." 
And  Milton  writes  like  any  Platonist  of  his  time: 


"For  Spirits,  when  they  pie 
Can  either  sex  assume,  or  both ;  so  soft 
And  uncompounded  is  their  essence  pure, 
Not  ty'd  or  manacled  with  joint  or  limb, 
Nor  founded  on  the  brittle  strength  of  bones, 
Like  cumbrous  flesh;  but,  in  what  shape  they  choose, 
Dilated  or  condensed,  bright  or  obscure, 
Can  execute  their  aery  purposes, 
And  works  of  love  or  enmity  fulfil." 

Note  i  i  .  The  seers  and  healers  in  this  section  differ  but  little 
from  clairvoyants  and  spirit  mediums  of  the  towns,  and  explain 
their  powers  in  much  the  same  way.  Indeed  one  of  Lady  Greg- 
ory's story-tellers  will  have  it  that  America  is  more  full  than 
Ireland  of  faeries,  and  describes  the  mediums  there  to  prove  it. 
It  is  often  through  some  virtue  in  these  country  seers  and  healers 
that  the  faeries  or  spirits  are  able  to  affect  men  and  women  and 
natural  objects.  Mrs.  Sheridan  says  that  a  child  could  not  have 
been  taken  if  she  had  not  been  looking  on,  and  one  hears  again  and 
again  that  even  when  the  faeries  fight  among  themselves  or  play 
at  hurley,  there  must  be  a  man  upon  either  side.  We  are  all  in  a 
sense  mediums,  if  the  village  seer  speaks  truth,  for  through  any 


276  Visions  and  Beliefs 

unsanctified  emotion,  love,  affection,  admiration,  the  spirits  may 
attain  power  over  a  child  or  horse  or  whatever  is  before  our  eyes, 
and  perhaps,  as  the  controls  of  mediums  will  sometimes  say,  they 
can  only  see  the  world  through  our  eyes.  Albert  de  Rochas, 
borrowing  a  theory  from  the  seventeenth  century,  has  suggested 
with  the  general  assent  of  spiritists  that  the  fluidic  or  sidereal 
body  of  the  medium,  the  mould  upon  which  the  physical  body  is, 
it  may  be,  built  up,  is  more  detachable  than  in  persons  who  are  not 
mediums,  and  that  the  spirits  make  themselves  visible  by  trans- 
forming it  into  their  own  shape  or  into  what  shape  they  please  and 
attain  by  its  means  a  power  over  physical  objects.  (See  L'Exteri- 
orisation  de  la  Motricite.)  Instead  of  the  expensive  crystal  of  the 
Bond  Street  clairvoyant,  Biddy  Early  gazed  into  her  bottle,  but 
that  is  almost  the  whole  difference.  If  the  dreams  and  visions  of 
Connacht  have  more  richness  and  beauty  than  those  of  Camber- 
well,  it  is  that  Connacht,  having  no  doubts  as  to  our  survival  of 
death,  is  not  always  looking  for  but  one  sort  of  evidence,  and  so 
can  let  things  happen  as  they  will.  The  brother  or  sister  or  the 
like  who  comes  to  the  knowledgeable  man  or  woman  after  death 
is  but  the  "guide"  that  has  been  so  common  in  England  and 
America,  since  the  Rochester  rappings,  and  a  country  form  of 
Plutarch's  "daemon."  At  other  moments,  however,  "seer"  or 
"healer"  resembles  a  witch  or  wizard  rather  than  a  modern 
medium. 

In  one  thing,  however,  they  always  resemble  the  medium  and 
not  the  witch.  They  seem  to  have  no  dealings  with  the  devil. 
The  Irish  Trials  for  witchcraft  of  the  English  and  continental 
type  took  place  among  the  English  settlers.  I  have  never  come 
across  a  case  of  a  "compact"  nor  has  Lady  Gregory,  nor  have  I 
read  of  one. 

Note  12.  It  is  almost  unthinkable  to  Lady  Gregory  and 
myself,  who  know  Mrs.  Sheridan,  that  she  can  ever  have  seen  a 
drawbridge  in  a  picture  or  heard  one  spoken  of.  Nor  does  this 
instance  stand  alone.  I  have  had  in  my  own  family  what  seemed 
the  accurate  calling  up  of  an  unknown  past  but  failing  a  link  of 
difficult  evidence  still  unfound,  coincidence,  though  exceedingly 
unlikely,  is  still  a  possible  explanation.  I  have  come  upon  a 
number  of  other  cases  which  are,  though  no  one  case  is  decisive, 
a  powerful  argument  taken  altogether.    In  The  Adventure  (Mac- 


Notes  277 

Millan),  an  elaborate  vision  of  this  kind  is  recorded  in  detail  and, 
accepting  the  record  as  accurate,  the  verification  is  complete. 
Two  ladies  found  themselves  in  the  garden  of  the  Petit  Trianon 
in  the  midst  of  what  seemed  to  be  the  court  of  Marie  Antoinette, 
in  just  the  same  sudden  way  in  which  some  countryman  finds 
himself  among  ladies  and  gentlemen  dressed  in  what  seem  the 
clothes  of  a  long  passed  time.  The  record  purports  to  have  been 
made  in  November  and  December  1901,  whereas  the  vision 
occurred  in  August.  This  lapse  of  time  does  not  seem  to  me  to 
destroy  the  value  of  the  evidence,  if  the  record  was  made  before 
its  corroboration  by  long  and  difficult  research. '  Accepting  the 
good  faith  of  the  narrators,  both  well-known  women  and  of 
established  character,  its  evidence  for  some  more  obscure  cause 
than  unconscious  memory  can  only  be  weakened  by  the  discovery 
in  some  book  or  magazine  accessible  to  the  visionaries  before  their 
visit  to  the  Trianon,  of  historical  information  on  such  minute 
points  as  the  dress  Marie  Antoinette  wore  in  a  particular  month, 
and  the  position  of  ornamental  buildings  and  rock  work  not  now 
in  existence.  There  is  a  great  mass  of  similar  evidence  in  Denton's 
Soul  of  Things  though  its  value  is  weakened  by  his  not  sufficiently 
allowing  for  thought  transference  from  his  own  mind  to  that  of 
his  sensitives. 

A  "  theosophist "  or  "occultist"  of  almost  any  modern  school 
explains  such  visions  by  saying  they  are  "pictures  in  the  astral 
light"  and  that  all  objects  and  events  leave  their  images  in  the 
astral  light  as  upon  a  photographic  plate,  and  that  we  must  dis- 
tinguish between  spirits  and  these  unintelligent  pictures.  I  was 
once  at  Madame  Blavatsky's  when  she  tried  to  explain  predes- 
tination, our  freedom  and  God's  full  knowledge  of  the  use  that 
we  should  make  of  it.  All  things  past  and  to  come  were  present 
to  the  mind  of  God  and  yet  all  things  were  free.  She  soon  saw 
that  she  had  carried  us  out  of  our  depth  and  said  to  one  of  her 
followers  with  a  mischievous,  mocking  voice:  "You  with  your 
impudence  and  your  spectacles  will  be  sitting  there  in  the  Akasa 

1  Since  writing  the  above  the  authors  of  An  Adventure  have 
shown  me  a  mass  of  letters  proving  that  they  spoke  of  the 
visions  to  various  correspondents  before  the  corroboration,  and 
showing  the  long  and  careful  research  that  the  corroboration 
involved.  W.  B.  Y. 

October,  1918. 


278  Visions  and  Beliefs 

to  all  eternity"  and  then  in  a  more  meditative  voice,  "No,  not  to 
all  eternity  for  a  day  will  come  when  even  the  Akasa  will  pass 
away  and  there  will  be  nothing  but  God,  chaos,  that  which  every 
man  is  seeking  in  his  heart."  Akasa,  she  was  accustomed  to 
explain  as  some  Indian  word  for  the  astral  light.  Perhaps  that 
theory  of  the  astral  pictures  came  always  from  the  despair  of 
some  visionary  to  find  understanding  for  a  more  metaphysical 
theory.  It  is,  however,  ancient.  To  Cornelius  Agrippa  it  is  the 
air  that  reflects,  but  the  air  is  something  more  than  what  the 
word  means  for  us.  "It  is  a  vital  spirit  passing  through  all 
beings  giving  life  and  substance  to  all  things  ...  it  imme- 
diately receives  into  itself  the  influences  of  all  celestial  bodies, 
and  then  communicates  them  to  the  other  elements  as  also  to  all 
mixed  bodies.  Also  it  receives  into  itself  as  if  it  were  a  divine 
looking-glass  the  species  of  all  things,  as  well  natural  as  artificial," 
it  enters  into  men  and  animals  "through  their  pores"  and  "makes 
an  impression  upon  them  as  well  when  they  sleep  as  when  they 
awake  and  affords  matter  to  divers  strange  dreams  and  divina- 
tions. .  .  .  Hence  it  is  that  a  man  passing  by  a  place  where 
a  man  was  slain  and  the  carcase  newly  laid  is  moved  by  fear  and 
dread;  because  the  air  in  that  place  being  full  of  the  dread  species 
of  man-slaughter  does  being  breathed  in,  move  and  trouble  the 
spirit  of  the  man  with  a  like  species  .  .  .  whence  it  is  that 
many  philosophers  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  air  is  the  cause 
of  dreams."  Henry  More  is  more  precise  and  philosophical  and 
believes  that  this  air  which  he  calls  Spiritus  Mundi  contains  all 
forms,  so  that  the  parents  when  a  child  is  begotten,  or  a  witch 
when  the  double  is  projected  as  a  hare,  but  as  it  were,  call  upon 
the  Spiritus  Mundi  for  the  form  they  need.  The  name  "Astral 
Light"  was  given  to  this  air  or  spirit  by  the  Abbe  Constant  who 
wrote  under  the  pseudonym  of  Elephas  LeVi  and  like  Madame 
Blavatsky,  claimed  to  be  the  voice  of  an  ancient  magical  society. 
In  his  Dogma  et  Rituel  de  la  Haute  Magie  published  in  the  fifties,  he 
described  in  vague,  eloquent  words,  influenced  perhaps  by  the 
recent  discovery  of  the  daguerreotype  these  pictures  which  we 
continually  confuse  with  the  still  animate  shades.  A  more 
clear  exposition  of  a  perhaps  always  incomprehensible  idea 
is  that  of  Swedenborg  who  says  that  when  we  die,  we  live 
over  again  the  events  that  lie  in  all  their  minute  detail  in 
our  memory,  and  this  is  the  explanation  of  the  authors  of  The 
Adventure  who  believe,  as  it  seems,  that  they  were  entangled 


Notes  279 

in  the  memory  of  Marie  Antoinette.  I  have  met  students  who 
claimed  to  have  had  knowledge  of  Levi's  sources  and  who  believed 
that  when  at  last  a  spirit  has  been,  as  it  were,  pulled  out  of 
its  coil,  other  spirits  may  use  its  memory,  not  only  of  events 
but  of  words  and  of  thoughts.  Did  Cornelius  Agrippa  iden- 
tify soul  with  memory  when,  after  quoting  Ovid  to  prove 
that  the  flesh  cleaves  to  earth,  the  ghost  hovers  over  the  grave, 
the  soul  sinks  to  Oxos,  and  the  spirit  rises  to  the  stars,  he  explains 
that  if  the  soul  has  done  well  it  rejoices  with  the  almost  fault- 
less spirit,  but  if  it  has  done  ill,  the  spirit  judges  it  and  leaves  it 
for  the  devil's  prey  and  "the  sad  soul  wanders  about  hell  without 
a  spirit  and  like  an  image?"  Remembering  these  writings  and 
sayings,  I  find  new  meaning  in  that  description  of  death  taken 
down  by  Lady  Gregory  in  some  cottage:  "The  shadow  goes 
wandering  and  the  soul  is  tired  and  the  body  is  taking  a  rest." 

I  was  once  talking  with  Professor  James  of  experiences  like  to 
those  in  The  Adventure  and  said  that  I  found  it  easiest  to  under- 
stand them  by  believing  in  a  memory  of  nature  distinguished 
from  individual  memory,  though  including  and  enclosing  it.  He 
would,  however,  have  none  of  my  explanation  and  preferred  to 
think  the  past,  present,  and  future  were  only  modes  of  our  per- 
ception and  that  all  three  were  in  the  divine  mind,  present  at 
once.  It  was  Madame  Blavatsky's  thought,  and  Shelley's  in  the 
Sensitive  Plant: 

"  That  garden  sweet,  that  lady  fair, 
And  all  sweet  shapes  and  odours  there, 
In  truth  have  never  passed  away; 
'Tis  we,  'tis  ours,  are  changed,  not  they. 

"  For  love,  and  beauty,  and  delight, 
There  is  no  death  nor  change;  their  light 
Exceeds  our  organs,  which  endure 
No  light,  being  themselves  obscure.'* 

Note  13.  The  ancient  Irish  had  quadrilateral  houses  built  of 
logs,  and  round  houses  of  clay  and  wattles.  O  'Sullivan,  in  his 
introduction  to  O'Curry's  Manners  and  Customs,  writes:  "The 
houses  built  in  Duns  and  in  stone  caiseal,  and  those  surrounded  by 
mounds  of  earth,  were,  probably  in  all  cases  round  houses."  A 
Bo  Aires,  or  farmer  with  ten  cows  was  supposed  to  have  a  house 


280  Visions  and  Beliefs 

at  least  twenty-seven  feet  wide  but  the  houses  of  better  off 
men  must  have  made  one  room  of  considerable  size,  a  whole 
household  sleeping  on  beds,  sometimes  with  low  partitions  be- 
tween, raying  out  from  the  wall  like  spokes  of  a  wheel.  Petrie 
thought  the  great  quadrilateral  banqueting  hall  of  Tara  was  once 
ninety  feet  wide. 

Note  14.  In  The  Roman  Ritual,  there  is  an  exorcism  for 
evil  spirits  and  a  ceremony  for  the  succour  of  the  sick  (cura 
infirmorum).  And  in  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  containing 
this  ceremony  (Caput  IV.,  verse  12),  it  is  stated  that  images 
of  Christ,  the  Virgin,  and  of  saints  especially  in  veneration  of 
the  sick  man,  may  cure  him  if  brought  into  the  room.  In  the 
ceremony  of  exorcism,  the  priest  is  directed  to  make  numerous 
signs  of  the  cross  over  the  possessed  person  (sic.  rubric:  Tres 
cruces  sequentes  fiant  in  pectore  dcemoniaci).  The  spirit  is  com- 
manded to  be  gone  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  ceremony  with  psalms  covers  twenty-six 
pages  of  my  copy.  The  exorcism  is  described  as  a  driving  out  of 
the  "most  unclean  spirit"  of  every  phantasm  and  every  legion. 
It  commands  the  "most  evil  dragon,  in  the  name  of  the  immacu- 
late lamb  who  walked  upon  the  asp  and  the  basilisk  and  cast  down 
the  lion  and  the  dragon  "  to  "  go  down  out  of  this  man. " 

In  the  ceremony  for  the  sick,  the  priest  places  his  hand  on  the 
head  of  the  sick  man  and  says: 

"Let  them  place  their  hands  on  the  sick  and  they  shall  be  well 
[Super  cegros  manus  imponent,  et  bene  habebunt].  May  Christ 
Son  of  Mary,  Saviour  of  the  world  and  Lord,  by  the  merits  and 
intercession  of  his  holy  apostles  Peter  and  Paul  and  of  all  the 
saints  be  clement  and  propitious  to  you." 

The  ceremony  is  ten  pages  and  contains  various  psalms  and 
selections  from  the  Gospels. 

Round  these  two  ceremonies  have  gathered  in  the  minds  of  the 
country  people,  at  least,  many  traditional  ideas.  When  any  one 
is  cured,  there  is  a  victim,  some  other  human  being  or  some  animal 
will  die.  If  one  remembers  that  diseases  were  very  commonly 
considered  to  be  the  work  of  demons,  one  sees  how  the  story  of  the 
Gadarene  swine  would  support  the  tradition.  I  know  not  into 
what  subtlety  the  dreaming  mind  may  not  carry  the  thought,  for 
some  few  months  ago  in  France,  an  excommunicated  miracle- 
working  priest  said  in  my  hearing:  "There  is  always  a  victim; 


Notes  281 

so-and-so  was  the  victim  for  France,"  naming  a  holy  Italian  nun 
who  had  just  died.  "And  so-and-so,"  naming  a  living  holy 
woman,  "is  the  victim  for  my  own  village."  Various  medieval 
saints,  and  even  certain  witches,  cured  sick  persons  by  taking  the 
disease  upon  themselves. 

Christian  Scientists  and  Mental  Healers  are  often  afraid  of 
themselves  acquiring  the  disease  which  they  drive  out  of  their 
patient ;  they  sometimes  speak  of  the  effort  that  it  costs  them  to 
shake  it  off.  I  was  told  a  story  the  other  day,  which  I  have 
proved  not  to  be  true,  but  which  is  evidence  of  the  belief.  A 
woman  said  to  me  some  such  words  as  these:  "  My  friend  so-and- 
so,  who  is  a  Mental  Healer,  was  staying  in  the  country.  She  saw  a 
woman  there  with  a  strange  look.  She  asked  what  was  wrong,  and 
found  that  this  woman  was  expecting  a  periodical  fit  of  madness. 
She  offered  to  undertake  her  cure,  and  brought  her  to  her  own 
house.  The  patient  became  violent,  but  my  friend  was  able  by 
faith  and  prayer  to  soothe  her  till  she  fell  asleep.  My  friend  went 
downstairs  exhausted,  and  lay  upon  the  sofa.  Presently  she  saw 
strange  shadows  coming  into  the  room  and  knew  they  had  come 
from  the  patient  upstairs,  and  these  shadows,  taking  the  form  of 
swine,  threw  themselves  upon  her  and  only  after  a  long  struggle 
could  she  throw  them  off. "  The  swine  and  their  attack  were  all 
moonshine,  but  the  healer,  whom  I  found  and  questioned,  did 
believe  that  she  saw  shadows  leaving  the  patient. 

The  transference  of  disease  was  a  generally  recognized  part  of 
medieval  and  ancient  medicine;  and  Albert  de  Rochas  gives 
considerable  space  to  it  in  his  U Exteriorization  de  la  Sensibilite, 
Paris,  1909.  He  quotes  from  a  seventeenth-century  writer,  Abbe" 
de  Vellemort,  many  examples  from  medical  and  scientific  writers 
of  that  time  who  believed  themselves  to  have  transferred  diseases 
from  their  patients  to  animals  and  to  trees  and  to  various  sub- 
stances, "Mumia"  as  they  called  them,  which  absorb  des  esprits 
qui  resident  dans  le  sang  and  then  describes  various  experiments 
made  in  1885  by  Dr.  Babinski  "Chef  de  Clinique  de  M.  Charcot" 
in  transferring  now  by  magnets,  now  by  suggestion  various  forms 
of  nervous  disease  from  one  patient  to  another.  Where  these 
diseases  were  produced  in  the  first  instance  by  suggestion,  the 
patient  from  whom  the  disease  was  transferred,  was  freed  from  itf 
but  where  the  disease  was  natural  and  the  cause  of  the  patient 
being  at  the  hospital,  there  was  no  cure  although  in  one  case 
there  was  improvement.     Albert  de  Rochas  then  quotes  as 


282  Visions  and  Beliefs 

follows  from  a  lecture  given  by  Dr.  Luys  to  La  Soci£te*  de  Biolo- 
gie  in  1894. 

"M.  D'Arsonval  has,  according  to  a  communication  from  an 
English  physician,  given  an  account  at  the  last  meeting  of  the 
Socidte  de  Biologie,  of  the  persistent  action  in  a  magnetized  iron 
bar  of  the  magnetic  fluid,  which  to  a  certain  extent,  kept  a  memory 
of  its  former  state. 

"My  researches  of  the  same  kind  have  given  me  proofs  some 
time  since  of  analogous  phenomena  with  the  help  of  magnetized 
crowns  placed  on  the  head  of  a  subject  in  an  hypnotic  state. 

"  In  this  case,  it  is  a  question  not  only  of  storing  vibrations  of 
magnetic  nature,  but  of  really  living  nature,  of  real  cerebral 
vibrations  through  the  coating  of  the  brain,  stored  in  a  magnetic 
crown,  in  which  they  remain  for  a  greater  or  less  length  of  time. 

"  To  arrive  at  this  phenomenon,  instead  of  using  an  unresponsive 
physical  instrument,  I  use  a  reacting  living  being — an  hypnotized 
subject,  who  has  thus  become  sensitive  to  living  magnetic  vibra- 
tions. I  am  presenting  to  the  Society  the  magnetized  crown,  like 
several  other  models  which  I  have  already  shown.  It  is  adapted 
to  the  head  by  means  of  a  system  of  straps,  encircles  it  and  leaves 
the  frontal  region  free. 

"It  also  forms  a  bent  magnet  with  a  positive  and  a  negative 
pole.  This  crown  was  put,  more  than  a  year  ago,  on  the  head  of  a 
woman  suffering  from  melancholia  with  ideas  of  persecution, 
agitation,  and  a  tendency  to  suicide,  etc.  The  application  of  the 
crown  lead  to  the  patient's  getting  slowly  better  after  five  or  six 
stances;  and  at  the  end  of  ten  days  I  thought  I  could  send  her 
back  to  the  hospital  without  any  danger.  At  the  end  of  a  fort- 
night, the  crown  having  been  isolated,  the  idea  came  to  me  quite 
empirically  of  placing  it  on  the  head  of  the  '  subject '  now  before 
you. 

"He  is  a  male,  hypnotizable,  hystSrique,  given  to  frequent  fits 
of  lethargy.  What  was  my  surprise  to  see  this  subject,  put  into 
the  somnambulistic  state,  complaining  in  exactly  the  same  terms 
as  those  the  cured  patient  had  used  a  fortnight  before. 

"He  first  of  all  took  on  the  sex  of  the  patient;  he  spoke  in  the 
feminine  gender;  he  complained  of  violent  headache;  he  said  he 
was  going  mad,  that  his  neighbours  came  into  his  room  to  do  him 
harm.  In  a  word,  the  hypnotic  subject  had,  thanks  to  the  mag- 
netized crown,  taken  on  the  cerebral  state  of  the  melancholic 
patient.     The  magnetized  crown  had  been  powerful  enough  to 


Notes  283 


draw  off  the  morbid  cerebral  influx  of  the  patient  (who  got  well), 
which  had  persisted,  like  a  memory,  in  the  intimate  (or  innermost) 
texture  of  the  magnetic  strip  of  metal. 

"This  is  a  phenomenon  we  have  produced  many  times,  for 
several  years;  not  only  with  the  subject  now  present,  but  with 
others. 

"This  communication  is,  amongst  physiological  phenomena, 
on  a  line  with  M.  D'Arsonval's  on  the  persistence  of  certain 
anterior  states  in  inorganic  bodies;  it  will  no  doubt  cause  much 
astonishment  and  scepticism  amongst  those  who  are  not  accus- 
tomed to  hypnologic  research. 

"Doubts  will  be  cast  on  the  sincerity  of  the  subject,  on  his 
tendency  to  produce  wonders,  to  being  carried  away,  and  also  on 
what  may  perhaps  seem  too  easy  an  acquiescence  on  the  part  of 
the  operator. 

"To  all  these  objections  I  will  only  answer:  that  this  pheno- 
menon of  the  transmission  of  the  psychical  states  of  a  subject  by 
means  of  a  magnetized  crown  which  keeps  given  impressions  is 
quite  in  the  order  of  the  phenomena  formerly  communicated  by 
M.  D'Arsonval.  And,  further,  the  first  time  I  made  this  experi- 
ment, it  was  done  without  my  knowing,  in  an  entirely  empirical 
way.  The  impregnated  crown  was  put  on  the  head  of  the  hyp- 
notic subject  about  a  fortnight  after  it  had  been  put  on  the 
patient's  head.  There  has  therefore  necessarily  been  a  first  opera- 
tion, of  which  I  did  not  foreknow  the  results;  for  we  did  not  know 
any  more  than  the  hypnotized  subject,  what  was  going  to  happen, 
and  the  subject  reacted,  motu  proprio,  without  any  excitant  other 
than  the  magnetic  crown. 

"  So  one  can  assert,  without  trying  to  draw  any  other  conclusions, 
that  certain  vibratory  states  of  the  brain,  and  probably  of  the 
nervous  system,  are  capable  of  storing  themselves  in  a  magnetized 
bent  strip  of  metal,  as  the  magnetic  fluid  is  stored  in  the  soft  bar 
of  iron,  and  of  leaving  persistent  traces;  still  further,  that  one 
can  only  destroy  this  persistent  magnetic  property  by  fire.  The 
crown  has  to  be  red-hot  before  it  ceases  to  act,  as  M.  D'Arsonval 
found  to  be  the  case  with  the  iron  bar." 

Albert  de  Rochas  makes  this  notable  comment: 

"The  same  phenomenon  would  certainly  have  been  produced 
had  the  patient  been  dead,  and  so  one  might  by  this  means  have 
a  sort  of  evocation  of  a  personality  no  longer  of  this  world. " 


284  Visions  and  Beliefs 

Note  15.  As  late  as  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
the  Irish  were  accustomed  to  leave  their  houses  on  the  plains  and 
valleys  in  spring  and  live  with  their  cattle  on  the  uplands,  return- 
ing to  the  valleys  and  plains  in  time  to  reap  the  harvest.  Before 
tillage  became  general  they  may  not  have  returned  till  the  chill  of 
autumn.  From  this  perhaps  came  the  faery  flittings  of  May  and 
November. 

Note  16.  The  pictures  shown  were  drawings  of  spirits 
"A.  E. "  made  from  his  own  visions.  The  yellow  thing  upon  the 
head  was,  I  suppose,  some  sort  of  crown.  These  countrywomen 
have  seen  so  little  gold  that  they  do  not  describe  anything  as  "of 
gold"  or  "like  gold."  They  will  say  of  yellow  hair  that  it  is 
"bright  like  silver." 

Note  17.  The  death-coach  or  more  properly  coiste-bodhar  or 
"deaf-coach,"  so  called  from  its  rumbling  sound.  It  is  usually 
an  omen  of  death. 

Note  18.  The  thing  "yellow  and  slippery,  not  hair  but  like 
marble"  is  evidently  a  crown  of  gold.  Are  these  spirits  in  dress 
of  ancient  authority  the  shepherds  of  the  more  recent  dead? 

Note  19.  I  have  read  somewhere,  but  cannot  remember 
where,  that  ragweed  was  once  used  to  make  some  medicine  for 
horses.  This  would  account  for  its  association  with  them  in  the 
half-fantasy,  half-vision  of  the  country  seers.  In  the  same  way, 
the  mushroom  ring  of  the  faeries  is,  it  seems,  a  memory  of  some 
intoxicating  liquor  made  of  mushrooms,  when  intoxication  was 
mysterious.  The  storyteller  speaks  of  "those  red  flowers," 
showing  how  vague  her  sense  of  colour,  or  her  knowledge  of 
English,  for  ragweed  is,  of  course,  yellow. 

Note  20.  "  Bracket "  is  Irish  for  "  speckled  "  and  seems  to  me 
a  description  of  the  plaids  and  stripes  of  medieval  Ireland. 

Note  21.  Bodin  in  his  De  Magorum  Dtetnonomania  speaks  of 
salt  as  a  spell  against  spirits  because  a  "symbol  of  eternity." 

Note  22.  Tir-na-n-og,  the  country  of  the  young,  the  paradise 
of  the  ancient  Irish.     It  is  sometimes  described  as  under  the 


Notes  285 

earth,  sometimes  as  all  about  us,  and  sometimes  as  an  enchanted 
island.  This  island  paradise  has  given  rise  to  many  legends; 
sailors  have  bragged  of  meeting  it.  A  Dutch  pilot  settled 
in  Dublin  in  1614,  claimed  to  have  seen  it  off  the  coast  of 
Greenland  in  61  °  of  latitude.  It  vanished  as  he  came  near,  but 
sailing  in  an  opposite  direction  he  came  upon  it  once  more,  but 
Giraldus  Cambrensis  claimed  that  shortly  before  he  came  to 
Ireland  such  a  phantom  island  was  discovered  off  the  west  coast 
of  Ireland  and  made  habitable.  Some  young  men  saw  it  from  the 
shore;  when  they  came  near  it,  it  sank  into  the  water.  The  next 
day  it  reappeared  and  again  mocked  the  same  youths  with  the 
like  delusion.  At  length,  on  their  rowing  towards  it  on  the  third 
day,  they  followed  the  advice  of  an  older  man,  and  let  fly  an 
arrow,  barbed  with  red-hot  steel,  against  the  island;  and  then 
landing,  found  it  stationary  and  habitable. 

Note  23.  Supernatural  strength  is  often  spoken  of  by  the  people 
as  a  sign  of  faery  power.  It  is  also  enumerated  in  The  Roman  Ritual 
among  the  signs  of  possession.  I  have  read  somewhere  that  the 
priests  of  Apollo  showed  it  in  their  religious  transports. 

Note  24.  "Materializations"  are  generally  imperfect.  The 
spirit  makes  just  enough  of  mind  and  form  for  its  purpose.  Even 
when  the  form  is  only  visible  to  the  clairvoyant  there  may  still  be 
materialization,  though  not  carried  far  enough  to  affect  ordinary 
sight. 

Note  25.  The  picture  was  made  by  "A.  E."  of  one  of  the 
formsThe  sees  in  vision. 

Note  26.  The  barrel  which  contained  a  brew  that  made  the 
spirits  invisible  is  probably  the  cauldron  of  the  god  Dagda, 
called  "The  Undry"  "because  it  was  never  empty."  The 
Tuatha-de-Danaan,  the  old  Irish  divine  race,  brought  with  them 
to  Ireland  four  talismans,  the  sword,  the  spear,  the  stone,  and 
the  cauldron.  Rhys,  in  his  Celtic  Heathendom,  compares  it  with 
the  Irish  well  of  wisdom,  overhung  by  nine  hazels,  and  the 
Welsh  "Cauldron  of  the  Head  of  Hades,"  set  over  a  fire,  blown 
into  a  flame  by  the  breath  of  nine  young  girls.  Girls  and  hazels 
were  alike,  he  thinks,  symbols  of  time  because  of  the  nine  days 
of  the  old  Celtic  week,  and  comparable  with  the  nine  Muses, 


286  Visions  and  Beliefs 

daughters  of  Memory.     Nutt  thought  the  Celtic  cauldron  the 
first  form  of  the  Holy  Grail. 

Note  27.  In  my  record  of  this  conversation  I  find  a  sentence 
that  has  dropped  out  in  Lady  Gregory's.  The  old  man  used  these 
words:  "And  I  took  down  a  fork  from  the  rafters  and  asked  her 
was  it  a  broom  and  she  said  it  was,"  and  it  was  that  answer  that 
proved  her  in  the  power  of  the  faeries.  She  was  "suggestible" 
and  probably  in  a  state  of  trance. 

Note  28.  The  Dundonians  are,  of  course,  the  Tuatha-de- 
Danaan,  and  those  with  the  bag  are  the  "firbolg"  or  "bag-men, " 
we  have  now,  it  may  be,  a  true  explanation  of  a  name  Professor 
Rhys  has  interpreted  with  intricate  mythology.  I  wonder  if 
these  bags  are  related  to  the  Sporran  of  the  Highlanders. 

Note  29.  Here  though  maybe  but  in  seeming,  spiritism  and 
folk-lore  are  at  issue  with  one  another.  The  spirit  of  the  seance 
room  is  described  as  growing  to  maturity  and  remaining  in  that 
state.  In  Swedenborg  it  moves  toward  "the  day-spring  of  its 
youth."  Among  the  country  people  too,  one  sometimes  hears  of 
the  dead  growing  to  the  likeness  of  thirty  years  in  heaven  and 
remaining  so.  Thirty  years,  I  suppose,  because  at  that  age  Christ 
began  his  ministry.  The  idea  that  underlies  Mrs.  Fagan's 
statement  seems  to  be  that  we  have  a  certain  measure  of  life  to 
live  out  on  earth  or  in  some  intermediate  state.  Are  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  "intermediate  state"  the  "earthbound"  of  the 
spiritists? 

Note  30.  Professor  Lombroso  quotes  from  Professor  Faffofer 
the  following  description  of  how  he  received  news  of  the  death  of 
Carducci:  "On  the  18th  of  February,  in  the  evening,  our  spirit- 
friends  did  not  at  once  give  us  notice  of  their  presence  at  our 
sitting,  and  we  waited  for  them  about  half  an  hour.  'Remigo,' 
on  being  asked  the  reason  why  they  had  delayed,  replied:  '  We  are 
in  a  state  of  agitation  and  confusion  here.  We  have  just  come 
from  a  festival — of  grief  for  you  and  joy  for  us.  We  have  been 
present  at  the  death-bed  of  Carducci. "  He  had  died  that  day 
and  in  that  very  hour  and  the  news  had  not  yet  arrived  by  the 
ordinary  channels." 


Notes  287 

Note  31.  I  was  the  patient;  it  seemed  to  be  the  only  way  of 
coming  to  intimate  speech  with  the  knowledgeable  man. 

Note  32.  The  ghosts  of  "spiritism"  are  constantly  changing 
place  or  state.  Sometimes  for  this  reason  they  must  say  "good- 
bye" to  a  medium.  That  they  are  passing  to  a  "higher  state" 
seems  to  be  the  usual  phrase.  See  for  instance  the  account  signed 
by  A.  I.  Smart  and  a  number  of  witnesses,  published  in  The 
Medium  and  Daybreak,  of  June  15,  1877. 

Note  33.  I  have  been  several  times  told  that  a  great  battle  for 
the  potatoes  preceded  the  great  famine.  What  decays  with  us 
seems  to  come  out,  as  it  were,  on  the  other  side  of  the  picture  and 
is  spirits'  property. 

Note  34.  This  is  true  but  he  might  have  guessed  it  from  the 
difference  of  my  glasses;  one  is  plain  glass. 

Note  35.  They  are  only  small  when  "upon  certain  errands," 
but  when  small,  three  feet  or  thereabouts  seems  to  be  the  almost 
invariable  height.  Mary  Battle,  my  uncle  George  Pollexfen's 
second-sighted  servant  told  me  that  "it  is  something  in  our  eyes 
makes  them  big  or  little."  People  in  trance  often  see  objects 
reduced.  Mrs.  Piper  when  half  awakened  will  sometimes  see 
the  people  about  her  very  small. 

Note  36.  The  same  story  as  that  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
of  the  "  Noh "  plays  of  Japan.  I  tell  the  Japanese  story  in  my 
long  terminal  essay. 

Note  37.  Mediums  have  often  said  that  the  spirits  see  this 
world  through  our  eyes.  John  Heydon,  upon  the  other  hand, 
calls  good  spirits  "  The  eyes  and  ears  of  God." 

Note  38.  The  herbs  were  gathered  before  dawn,  probably 
that  the  dew  might  be  upon  them.  Dew,  a  signature  or  symbol  of 
the  philosopher's  stone,  was  held  once  to  be  a  secretion  from 
dawning  light. 

Note  39.  The  most  puzzling  thing  in  Irish  folk-lore  is  the 
number  of  countrymen  and  countrywomen  who  are  "away."    A 


288  Visions  and  Beliefs 

man  or  woman  or  child  will  suddenly  take  to  the  bed,  and  from 
that  on,  perhaps  for  a  few  weeks,  perhaps  for  a  lifetime,  will  be  at 
times  unconscious,  in  a  state  of  dream,  in  trance,  as  we  say. 
According  to  the  peasant  theory  these  persons  are,  during  these 
times,  with  the  faeries,  riding  through  the  country,  eating  or 
dancing,  or  suckling  children.  They  may  even,  in  that  other 
world,  marry,  bring  forth,  and  beget,  and  may  when  cured  of  their 
trances  mourn  for  the  loss  of  their  children  in  faery.  This  state 
generally  commences  by  their  being  "touched"  or  "struck"  by  a 
spirit.  The  country  people  do  not  say  that  the  soul  is  away  and 
the  body  in  the  bed,  as  a  spiritist  would,  but  that  body  and  soul 
have  been  taken  and  somebody  or  something  put  in  their  place  so 
bewitched  that  we  do  not  know  the  difference.  This  thing  may  be 
some  old  person  who  was  taken  years  ago  and  having  come 
near  his  allotted  term  is  put  back  to  get  the  rites  of  the  church, 
or  as  a  substitute  for  some  more  youthful  and  more  helpful  per- 
son. The  old  man  may  have  grown  too  infirm  even  to  drive  cattle. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  thing  may  be  a  broomstick  or  a  heap  of 
shavings.  I  imagine  that  an  explanatory  myth  arose  at  a  very 
early  age  when  men  had  not  learned  to  distinguish  between 
the  body  and  the  soul,  and  was  perhaps  once  universal.  The 
fact  itself  is  certainly  "possession"  and  "trance"  precisely  as  we 
meet  them  in  spiritism,  and  was  perhaps  once  an  inseparable 
part  of  religion.  Mrs.  Piper  surrenders  her  body  to  the  control 
of  her  trance  personality  but  her  soul,  separated  from  the  body  has 
a  life  of  its  own,  of  which,  however,  she  is  little  if  at  all  conscious. 
There  are  two  books  which  describe  with  considerable  detail 
a  like  experience  in  China  and  Japan  respectively:  Demon 
Possession  and  Allied  Themes,  by  the  Rev.  John  L.  Nevius,  D.D. 
(Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1894);.  Occult  Japan,  by  Percival 
Lowell  (Houghton,  Mifflin,  1 895) .  In  both  countries,  however,  the 
dualism  of  body  and  soul  is  recognized,  and  the  theory  is  therefore 
identical  with  that  of  spiritism.  Dr.  Nevius  is  a  missionary  who 
gradually  became  convinced,  after  much  doubt  and  perplexity,  of 
the  reality  of  possession  by  what  he  believes  to  be  evil  spirits 
precisely  similar  to  that  described  in  the  New  Testament.  These 
spirits  take  possession  of  some  Chinese  man  or  woman  who  falls 
suddenly  into  a  trance,  and  announce  through  their  medium's 
mouth,  that  when  they  lived  on  earth  they  had  such  and  such  a 
name,  sometimes  if  they  think  a  false  name  will  make  them  more 
pleasing  they  will  give  a  false  name  and  history.  They  demand 


Notes  289 

certain  offerings  and  explain  that  they  are  seeking  a  home;  and 
if  the  offerings  are  refused,  and  the  medium  seeks  to  drive  them 
from  body  and  house  they  turn  persecutors;  the  house  may  catch 
fire  suddenly;  but  if  they  have  their  way,  they  are  ready  to  be 
useful,  especially  to  heal  the  sick.  The  missionaries  expel  them 
in  the  name  of  Christ,  but  the  Chinese  exorcists  adopt  a  method 
familiar  to  the  west  of  Ireland — tortures  or  threats  of  torture. 
They  will  light  tapers  which  they  stick  upon  the  fingers.  They 
wish  to  make  the  body  uncomfortable  for  its  tenant.  As  they 
believe  in  the  division  of  soul  and  body  they  are  not  likely 
to  go  too  far.  A  man  actually  did  burn  his  wife  to  death,  in 
Tipperary  a  few  years  ago,  and  is  no  doubt  still  in  prison  for  it. 
My  uncle,  George  Pollexfen,  had  an  old  servant  Mary  Battle,  and 
when  she  spoke  of  the  case  to  me,  she  described  that  man  as  very 
superstitious.  I  asked  what  she  meant  by  that  and  she  explained 
that  everybody  knew  that  you  must  only  threaten,  for  whatever 
injury  you  did  to  the  changeling  the  faeries  would  do  to  the  living 
person  they  had  carried  away.  In  fact  mankind  and  spiritkind 
have  each  their  hostage.  These  explanatory  myths  are  not  a 
speculative  but  a  practical  wisdom.  And  one  can  count  perhaps, 
when  they  are  rightly  remembered,  upon  their  preventing  the  more 
gross  practical  errors.  The  Tipperary  witch-burner  only  half 
knew  his  own  belief.  "I  stand  here  in  the  door,"  said  Mary 
Battle,  "and  I  hear  them  singing  over  there  in  the  field,  but  I 
have  never  given  in  to  them  yet. "  And  by  "giving  in  "  I  under- 
stood her  to  mean  losing  her  head. 

The  form  of  possession  described  in  Lowell's  book  is  not 
involuntary  like  that  the  missionary  describes.  And  the  possessing 
spirits  are  believed  to  be  those  of  holy  hermits  or  of  the  gods.  He 
saw  it  for  the  first  time  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  top  of  Mount  On- 
take*.  Close  on  the  border  of  the  snow  he  came  to  a  rest  house 
which  was  arranged  to  enclose  the  path,  that  all,  it  would  seem, 
might  stop  and  rest  and  eat  and  give  something  to  its  keeper. 
Presently  he  saw  three  young  men  dressed  in  white  who  passed 
on  in  spite  of  the  entreaties  of  the  keeper.  He  followed  and 
presently  found  them  praying  before  a  shrine  cut  in  the  side  of  a 
cliff.  When  the  prayer  was  finished  one  of  them  took  from  his 
sleeve  a  stick  that  had  hanging  from  it  pieces  of  zigzag  paper, 
and  sat  himself  on  a  bench  opposite  the  shrine.  One  of  the  others 
sat  facing  upon  another  bench,  clasping  his  hands  over  his  breast 
and  closing  his  eyes.  Then  the  first  young  man  began  a  long 
vol  1 — 19 


290  Visions  and  Beliefs 

evocation,  chanting  and  twisting  and  untwisting  his  fingers  all  the 
time.  Presently  he  put  the  wand  with  the  zigzag  paper  into  the 
other's  hands  and  the  other's  hands  began  to  twitch,  and  that 
twitching  grew  more  and  more.  The  man  was  possessed.  A 
spirit  spoke  through  his  mouth  and  called  itself  the  God, 
Hakkai. 

Now  the  evoker  became  very  respectful  and  asked  if  the  peak 
would  be  clear  of  clouds,  and  the  pilgrimage  a  lucky  one,  and  if  the 
god  would  take  care  of  those  left  at  home.  The  god  answered 
that  the  peak  would  be  clear  until  the  afternoon  of  the  day 
following  and  all  else  go  well.  The  voice  ceased  and  the  evoker 
offered  a  prayer  of  adoration.  The  entranced  man  was  awakened 
by  being  touched  on  the  breast  and  slapped  upon  the  back  and 
now  another  of  the  three  took  his  place.  And  all  was  gone  through 
afresh;  and  when  that  was  over  the  third  young  man  was  en- 
tranced in  his  turn. 

Mr.  Lowell  made  considerable  further  investigation  and  records 
many  cases,  and  was  told  that  the  god  or  spirit  would  sometimes 
speak  in  a  tongue  unknown  to  the  possessed  man,  or  gave  useful 
medical  advice.  He  is  one  of  the  few  Europeans  who  have  wit- 
nessed what  seems  to  be  an  important  right  of  Shinto  religion. 
Shintoism,  or  the  Way  of  the  Gods,  until  its  revival  in  the  last  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century  remained  lost  and  forgotten  in  the  roots 
of  Japanese  life.  It  had  been  superseded  by  Buddhism,  if  Mr. 
Lowell  was  correctly  informed,  as  completely  as  this  old  faery  faith 
of  Ireland  has  been  superseded  by  Christianity.  Buddhism,  how- 
ever, having  no  Christian  hostility  to  friendly  spirits,  does  not 
seem  to  have  done  anything  to  discourage  a  revival  which  was 
one  of  the  causes  that  brought  Japan  under  the  single  rule  of 
the  Mikado.  It  had  always  indeed  in  certain  of  its  sects 
practised  ceremonies  that  had  for  their  object  the  causing  of 
possession. 

There  is  a  story  in  The  Book  of  the  Dun  Cow  which  certainly 
describes  a  like  experience,  though  Prof.  Rhys  interprets  it  as  a 
solar  myth.  I  will  take  the  story  from  Lady  Gregory's  Cuchulain 
of  Muirthemne.  The  people  of  Ulster  were  celebrating  the  fes- 
tival of  the  beginning  of  winter,  held  always  at  the  beginning 
of  November.  The  first  of  November  is  still  a  very  haunted  day 
and  night.  A  flock  of  wild  birds  lit  upon  the  waters  near  to 
Cuchulain  and  certain  fair  women.  "  In  all  Ireland  there  were  not 
birds  to  be  seen  that  were  more  beautiful." 


Notes  291 


One  woman  said:  '"I  must  have  a  bird  of  these  birds  on  each 
of  my  two  shoulders.'  'We  must  all  have  the  same,'  said  the 
other  women.  '  If  any  one  is  to  get  them,  it  is  I  that  must  first 
get  them,'  said  Eithne  Inguba,  who  loved  Cuchulain.  'What 
shall  we  do?'  said  the  women.  'It  is  I  will  tell  you  that,'  said 
Levarcham,  'for  I  will  go  to  Cuchulain  from  you  to  ask  him  to 
gef  them.'" 

So  she  went  to  Cuchulain  and  said:  '"The  women  of  Ulster 
desire  that  you  will  get  these  birds  for  them.'  Cuchulain  put  his 
hand  upon  his  sword  as  if  to  strike  her,  and  he  said:  'Have  the 
idle  women  of  Ulster  nothing  better  to  do  than  to  send  me  catch- 
ing birds  today?'  'It  is  not  for  you,'  said  Levarcham,  'to  be 
angry  with  them;  for  there  are  many  of  them  are  half  blind  today 
with  looking  at  you,  from  the  greatness  of  their  love  for  you.'" 

After  this  Cuchulain  catches  the  birds  and  divides  them 
amongst  the  women,  and  to  every  woman  there  are  two  birds,  but 
when  he  comes  to  his  mistress,  Eithne  Inguba,  he  has  no  birds 
left.  '"It  is  vexed  you  seem  to  be,'  he  said,  'because  I  have 
given  the  birds  to  the  other  women.'  'You  have  good  reason 
for  that,'  she  said,  'for  there  is  not  a  woman  of  them  but  would 
share  her  love  and  her  friendship  with  you;  while  as  for  me  no 
person  shares  my  love  but  you  alone.' "  Cuchulain  promises  her 
whatever  birds  come,  and  presently  there  come  two  birds  who 
are  linked  together  with  a  chain  of  gold  and  "singing  soft  music 
that  went  near  to  put  sleep  on  the  whole  gathering. "  Cuchulain 
went  in  their  pursuit,  though  Eithne  and  his  charioteer  tried  to 
dissuade  him,  believing  them  enchanted.  Twice  he  casts  a  stone 
from  his  sling  and  misses,  and  then  he  throws  his  spear  but 
merely  pierces  the  wing  of  one  bird.  Thereupon  the  birds  dive 
and  he  goes  away  in  great  vexation,  and  he  lies  upon  the  ground 
and  goes  to  sleep,  and  while  he  sleeps  two  women  come  to 
him  and  put  him  under  enchantment.  In  the  Connacht  stories 
the  enchantment  begins  with  a  stroke,  or  with  a  touch  from  some 
person  of  faery  and  it  is  so  the  women  deal  with  Cuchulain. 
"The  woman  with  the  green  cloak  went  up  to  him  and  smiled 
at  him  and  she  gave  him  a  stroke  of  a  rod.  The  other  went  up  to 
him  then  and  smiled  at  him  and  gave  him  a  stroke  in  the  same 
way;  and  they  went  on  doing  this  for  a  long  time,  each  of  them 
striking  him  in  turn  till  he  was  more  dead  than  alive.  And  then 
they  went  away  and  left  him  there."  The  men  of  Ulster  found 
him  and  they  carried  him  to  a  house  and  to  a  bed  and  there  he 


292  Visions  and  Beliefs 

lay  till  the  next  November  came  round.  They  were  sitting  about 
the  bed  when  a  strange  man  came  in  and  sat  amongst  them. 
It  was  the  God,  ^Engus,  and  he  told  how  Cuchulain  could  be 
healed.  A  king  of  the  other  world,  Labraid,  wished  for  Cuchu- 
lain 's  help  in  a  war,  and  if  he  would  give  it,  he  would  have  the 
love  of  Fand  the  wife  of  the  sea  god  Manannan.  The  women  who 
gave  him  the  strokes  of  the  rods  were  Fand  and  her  sister  Liban, 
who  was  Labraid 's  wife.  They  had  sought  his  help  as  the  Con- 
nacht  faeries  will  ask  the  help  of  some  good  hurler.  Were  they 
too  like  our  faeries  "shadows"  until  they  found  it?  When  the 
god  was  gone,  Cuchulain  awoke,  and  Conahar,  the  King  of  Ulster, 
who  had  been  watching  by  his  bedside,  told  him  that  he  must  go 
again  to  the  rock  where  the  enchantment  was  laid  upon  him. 
He  goes  there  and  sees  the  woman  with  the  green  cloak.  She  is 
Liban  and  pleads  with  him  that  he  may  accept  the  love  of  Fand 
and  give  his  help  to  Labraid.  If  he  will  only  promise,  he  will 
become  strong  again.  Cuchulain  will  not  go  at  once  but  sends 
his  charioteer  into  the  other  world.  When  he  has  his  charioteer's 
good  report,  he  consents,  and  wins  the  fight  for  Labraid  and  is  the 
lover  of  Fand.  In  the  Connacht  stories  a  wife  can  sometimes 
get  back  her  husband  by  throwing  some  spell-breaking  object 
over  the  heads  of  the  faery  cavalcade  that  keeps  him  spellbound. 
Emir,  in  much  the  same  way,  recovers  her  husband  Cuchulain, 
for  she  and  her  women  go  armed  with  knives  to  the  yew  tree  upon 
Baile's  strand  where  he  had  appointed  a  meeting  with  Fand  and 
outface  Fand  and  drive  her  away. 

We  have  here  certainly  a  story  of  trance  and  of  the  soul  leaving 
the  body,  but  probably  after  it  has  passed  through  the  minds  of 
story-tellers  who  have  forgotten  its  original  meaning.  There  is  no 
mention  of  any  one  taking  Cuchulain 's  place,  but  Prof.  Rhys  in 
his  reconstruction  of  the  original  form  of  the  story  of  "Cuchulain 
and  the  Beetle  of  Forgetfulness,"  a  visit  also  to  the  other  world, 
makes  the  prince  who  summoned  him  to  the  adventure  take  his 
place  in  the  court  of  Ulster.  There  are  many  stories  belonging 
to  different  countries,  of  people  whose  places  are  taken  for  a  time 
by  angels  or  spirits  or  gods,  the  best  known  being  that  of  the 
nun  and  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  all  may  have  once  been  stories  of 
changelings  and  entranced  persons.  Pwyll  and  Arawyn  in  the 
Mabinogion  change  places  for  a  year,  Pwyll  going  to  the  court  of 
the  dead  in  the  shape  of  Arawyn  to  overcome  his  enemies,  and 
Arawyn  going  to  the  court  of  Dyved.    Pwyll  overcomes  Arawyn 's 


Notes  293 

enemies  with  one  blow  and  the  changeling's  rule  at  Dyved  was 
marvellous  for  its  wisdom.  In  all  these  stories  strength  comes 
from  men  and  wisdom  from  among  gods  who  are  but  shadows. 
I  have  read  somewhere  of  a  Norse  legend  of  a  false  Odin  that  took 
the  true  Odin's  place,  when  the  sun  of  summer  became  the  wintry- 
sun.  When  we  say  a  man  has  had  a  stroke  of  paralysis  or  that  he 
is  touched  we  refer  perhaps  to  a  once  universal  faery  belief. 

Note  40.  I  suppose  this  woman  who  was  glad  to  "pick  a  bit 
of  what  was  in  the  pigs'  trough"  had  passed  along  the  roads  in  a 
state  of  semi-trance,  living  between  two  worlds.  Boehme  had  for 
seven  days  what  he  called  a  walking  trance  that  began  by  his 
gazing  at  a  gleam  of  light  on  a  copper  pot  and  in  that  trance 
truth  fell  upon  him  "like  a  bursting  shower. " 

Note  41.  A  village  beauty  of  Bally  Lee.  Raftery  praised 
her  in  lines  quoted  in  my  Celtic  Twilight,  and  Lady  Gregory 
speaks  of  her  in  her  essay  on  Raftery  in  Poets  and  Dreamers. 

Note  42.  An  old,  second-sighted  servant  to  an  uncle  of 
mine  used  to  say  that  dreams  were  no  longer  true  "when  the 
sap  began  to  rise"  and  when  I  asked  her  how  she  knew  that,  she 
said;  "What  is  the  use  of  having  an  intellect  unless  you  know 
a  thing  like  that." 

Note  43.  "In  the  faeries "  is  plainly  a  misspeaking  of  the  old 
phrase  "in  faery"  that  is  to  say  "in  glamour  "  "under  enchant- 
ment." The  word  "faery"  as  used  for  an  individual  is  a  modern 
corruption.    The  right  word  is  "fay." 

Note  44.  The  sudden  filling  of  the  air  by  a  sweet  odour  is  a 
common  event  of  the  Seance  room.  It  is  mentioned  several 
times  in  the  "  Diary"  of  Stanton  Moses. 


GSVS 

•J 


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